j 

I.  I  B  Pt-A.  Tl^ET                    ! 

Mhto 

Ugical   Seminary, 

PRINCETON,  N  J. 

The 

Stephen  Collins  Donation. 

No 

No 
Xo. 

ase,  ^^^ijf^ 

''^I'^V,  Section. •>*._._ 

Boo/.,        >^:  ■— 

^ ^..J 

BX  8935  .S64  1838  copy  1 

Spence,  Irving,  1799-1836. 

Letters  on  the  early  histor 

of  the  Presbyterian  Church 


LETTERS 


THE    EARLY   HISTORY 


PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH  IN  AMERICA, 

ADDRESSED  TO 

THE  LATE  REV.  ROBERT  M.  LAIRD. 
BY  IRVING  SPENCE,  ESQ. 

OF  SNOWHILL,  MARYLAND. 


SKETCH  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  AUTHOR, 


AND  A  SELECTIOIf  FROM 


HIS  RELIGIOUS  WRITINGS. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY    PERKINS,    134    CHESTNUT     STREET. 

PERKINS  AND  MARVIN,   BOSTON. 

183  8. 


N.S-V  ^    •    "  ■■  ^^^^; 


',^p- 


Entered  according-  to  the  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1837, 
by  Hexhy  Perkins,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court 
of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 

I.  ASHMEAD  AND  CO.,  PRINTERS. 


PREFACE. 


This  little  volume  contains  the  principal  articles  of 
a  religious  character,  found  among  the  papers  of 
their  lamented  author.  The  letters  on  the  early 
churches  in  the  Peninsula,  were  the  last  labours  of 
his  hand.  They  were  undertaken  at  the  request  of 
the  Presbytery  of  Lewes.  They  were  left  unfinish- 
ed ;  most  of  them  in  his  first  draught,  were,  since 
his  death,  collected  on  scattered  pieces  of  paper. 

It  is  scarcely  justice  to  his  memory  to  publish 
them,  as  they  are,  undoubtedly,  far  from  what  they 
would  have  been,  had  he  been  spared  to  give  them 
the  finishing  touch  of  his  own  pen.  It  is,  however, 
the  opinion  of  many  competent  judges,  who  have 
examined  these  papers,  and  their  accompanying  do- 
cuments, that  they  embody  a  history  of  facts  too 
important  to  be  withheld  from  the  Presbyterian 
church,  from  any  delicacy  of  mere  individual  feel- 
ing ;  and,  that  although  they  may  not  be  what  they 
would  have  been,  yet,  that  even  in  their  present 
state,  they  are  far  from  disreputable  to  their  respect- 


IV 

ed  author.  They  are  the  result  of  investigations,  in 
which  he  took  a  deep  interest  for  some  time  imme- 
diately preceding  his  decease,  and  for  which,  few 
men  would  have  been  so  competent.  The  individual 
addressed  in  these  letters  is  the  late  Rev.  Robert  M. 
Laird. 

The  tract  on  being  "^ Ashamed  of  Christ,"  it  is 
said,  was  suggested  by  the  following  occurrence : 
The  author  at  some  early  period  of  his  christian 
course,  was  present  at  a  prayer-meeting,  and  was 
called  on  by  a  pious  elder  to  lead  in  prayer,  which 
through  diffidence  he  declined.  That  elder  then 
gave  out  to  be  sung,  the  hymn  of  Dr.  Watts, 
which  begins  with  these  lines : 

"  I'm  not  ashamed  to  own  my  Lord, 
Or  to  defend  his  cause." 

This  made  so  deep  an  impression  on  the  mind  of 
Mr.  Spence,  that  he  took  the  subject  into  very  pray- 
erful and  personal  consideration,  the  result  of  which 
was  this  excellent  tract. 

The  piece  entitled,  "  A  Few  Reminiscences,"  ap- 
pears to  have  been  suggested  by  the  Convention  of 
the  signers  of  the  Act  and  Testimony,  at  Pittsburgh, 
in  May,  1835,  and  was  probably  written  about  that 
time.  At  that  period,  the  author's  own  mind  appears 
to  have  been  so  much  employed  on  the  subjects  of 


death  and  eternity,  that  he  could  not  sympathise  in 
the  zeal  of  those  conventionists  for  mere  modes  and 
forms. 

The  few  poetical  compositions  at  the  end  of  the 
volume,  were  written  on  various  occasions ;  at  one 
time,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  pious  verses  to  a  fa- 
vourite tune ;  at  another  to  give  vent  to  the  author's 
own  feelings  on  a  particular  subject;  and  at  another, 
perhaps,  for  the  gratification  of  a  friend ;  but  never 
with  the  most  distant  intention  of  his  being  known  as 
a  poet.  One  of  them,  with  his  own  permission, 
was  published  anonymously  in  a  religious  periodical; 
another  w^as  transcribed  by  a  friend,  and  published  in 
a  newspaper,  without  his  knowledge ;  and  the  re- 
mainder were  found  amongst  his  manuscripts,  per- 
haps unknown  to  any  except  his  own  family.  As 
their  publication  is  demanded  by  some,  whose  judg- 
ment is  not  unworthy  of  regard,  they  are  added  as 
a  part  of  his  religious  w^ritings. 


1* 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Life  of  the  late  Irving-  Spence,  Esq^  -        -        -        -    13 

LETTER  I. 

Introductory  remarks — the  laws  of  provincial  Virginia  into- 
lerant, &c.         -        -        _        - 31 

LETTER  II. 

The  laws  of  Marj-land  while  under  the  proprietary,  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Lord  Baltimore,  tolerant,  &c.       -        -         -     38 

LETTER  IIL 

The  tolerance  of  Lord  Baltimore's  government  proved  from 
the  history  of  the  times — Government  passed  into  the 
hands  of  William  III.,        -        -        -        .        ^        .        .43 

LETTER  IV. 

Church  of  England  established  in  Maryland — Various  laws 
referred  to — ^John  Calvin  and  Servetus,     ...        -    48 

LETTER  V. 

The  intolerant  laws  now  enacted  in  Maryland  and  those  of 
Virginia  compared  with  the  laws  of  Geneva  in  the  time  of 
Calvin,      -        - -        -        -    53 


Vlll 


LETTER  VI. 

Government  of  Maryland,  after  the  establishment  of  the 
church  of  Eng-land,  in  many  tiling's  onerous  to  dissenters  ; 
yet  less  so  than  that  of  Virginia — Hence  Presbyterians 
settled  in  Somerset  and  Worcester  counties,  Maryland, 
rather  than  in  Accomack  county,  Virginia,         -        -        -    58 

LETTER  VII. 

The  Rev.  Francis  Makemie  the  first  Presbyterian  minister 
that  visited  this  continent,  .-_.-.     64 

LETTER  Vm. 
Rev.  Francis  Makemie's  travels,  labours,,  persecutions,  &c.    -     69' 

LETTER  IX. 

The  Rev.  Francis  Makemie's  zeal,  disinterestedness,  and 
liberality  in  the  cause  of  the  church,         -        -        -        -    7S 

LETTER  X. 

Inquiry  in  regard  to  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  first 
Presbyterian  churches  in  Somerset  and  Worcester  coun- 
ties, See, 79 

LETTER  XI. 

Presbyterian  churches  organized  in  the  tract  of  country  now 
Somerset  and  Worcester  counties,,  before  the  commence- 
ment of  the  eighteenth  century,  &c.,        -        -        -        -     84 

LETTER  XIL 

The  same  subj  ect  continued, 91 

LETTER  XIII. 

0    Rehobeth  the  eldest  of  the  churches,  in  what  is  now  Somer- 


IX 


PAGE 

set  and  Worcester  counties — Rev.   Mr.   Makemie  its  first 
pastor,  Rev.  Mr.  Henry  its  second,  &c.,    -        -        -        -    95 


LETTER  XIV. 

Memoir  of  the  Rev.  David  Purviance,        -        -      "  -        -  100 

LETTER  XV. 
Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Blatchford,         -        .        -        -  106 

LETTER  XVI. 

Memoir  of  John  P.  Duffield,  Esq.,        -        -        -        -        -  112 

MISCELLANIES. 

1.  A  few  Reminiscences, 125 

2.  Are  you  ashamed  of  Christ,  &c., 135 

POETRY. 

1.  O  that  it  were  with  me  as  in  months  past,         .        -        .  149 

2.  The  prodig-al  son  returning  to  his  father,         ...  150 

3.  The  King-  seen  in  his  beauty,  &c., 152 

4.  Hymn, 155 

5.  He  showed  them  his  hands  and  his  feet — Luke  xxiv.  40.  157 

APPENDIX. 

A. 

1.  Will  of  William  Anderson,  Mr.  Makemie's  father-in-law,  163 

2.  Extracts  from  the  early  intolerant  laws  of  Virginia,        -  166 


1.  Records  of  Accomack  court  relating  to  Rev.  Francis 

Makemie, 171 

2.  Rev.  Francis  Makemie's  Will, 172 


1.  Will  of  Mrs,  Anne  Holden,  Mr.  Makemie's  daughter,      -  178 

2.  Extracts  from  the  Will  of  the  Rev.  John  Henry,    -        -179 

3.  Extract  from  tlie  Will  of  the  Rev.  John  Hampton,         -  179 

D. 

Court  records  of  Rev.  George  McNish,  and  Rev.  John  Hamp- 
ton in  regard  to  their  license  to  preach  the  gospel,  -        -  181 


1.  Letter  from  George  Handy,  Esq.  on  the  church  of  Mo- 

nokin, 190 

2.  Letter  from  Rev.    Abrm.  De  Witt,  on  the  church  at 

Lewes,  &c.  .-.-...  194 


MEMOIR 


IRVING    SPENCE,    ESQ. 


SKETCH   OF  THE    LIFE 


LATE    IRVING    SPENCE,    ESQ. 


Os  perusing  a  book,  the  reader,  as  if  not  fully  sa- 
tisfied with  the  knowledge  of  what  is  written,  almost 
instinctively  inquires,  "  who  writes  ?"  To  gratify  this 
reasonable  curiosity  in  the  reader,  as  well  as  to  profit 
him  by  the  example  of  one,  who,  although  dead,  yet 
speaketh,  is  the  object  of  this  brief  sketch. 

Irvixg  Spep^ce,  Esq.,  was  born  November  19th, 
1799,  near  Snowhill,  on  the  Eastern  shore  of  Ma- 
ryland, of  pious  and  highly  respectable  parents.  Hi's 
great-grandfather,  Adam  Spence,  of  w^hom  he  speaks 
in  the  tenth  letter  of  the  present  volume,  as  having 
probably  affixed  his  name  to  the  solemn  league  and 
covenant,  emigrated  from  Scotland,  some  time  about 
the  year  1680,  and  settled  at,  or  near  the  place,  where 
Snowhill  now  stands.  He  was  a  merchant,  and 
became  a  ruling  elder  in  the  church  at  Snowhill, 
perhaps  immediately  on  its  organization  by  the  Rev. 
2 


14 

FrancisMackensie,sometimebetween  1680  and  1690# 
He  was  married  soon  after  his  arrival  in  this  coun- 
try. He  reared  a  family  of  five  children,  one  son 
and  four  daughters.  The  son's  name  was  Adam,  who 
also  became  a  merchant,  and  a  member  of  the  Pres- 
byterian church.  He  was  twice  married.  His  se- 
cond marriage  was  with  a  Miss  Irving,  whose  maid- 
en name  was  made  the  christian  name  of  her  grand- 
son, the  subject  of  this  sketch.  By  this  marriage 
he  had  eight  children,  Adam,  John  and  George, 
Marcraret,  Elizabeth,  Anna,  Mary,  and  Sarah. — 
George,  the  father  of  Mr.  Irving  Spence,  was  twice 
married.  His  first  wife  was  Andasia  Robins,  an 
aunt  of  the  late  Judge  Robins  of  Worcester  county, 
Maryland.  His  second  wife  was  Nancy  PurnelL 
The  children  by  his  first  marriage  were,  Adam,  de- 
ceased. Thomas,  the  present  Dr.  Thomas  R.  P. 
Spence  of  Snowhill.  Elizabeth  and  Andasia,  both 
deceased.  The  children  by  the  second  marriage 
were,  Lemuel,  the  present  Register  of  the  county  of 
Worcester;  John,  one  of  the  present  Senators  in 
Congress  from  the  State  of  Maryland;  James,  de- 
ceased ;  Ara,  now  Chief  Justice  of  the  Fourth  Judi- 
cial District  of  Maryland ;  William  and  George, 
both  deceased;  and  Irving,  the  subject  of  this  brief 
notice,  also  deceased.  The  latter,  was  the  youngest 
of  the  family,  and  was  born  just  before  his  father's 
death,  and  after  his  will  had  been  executed,  which 
precluded  him  from  any  portion  in  his  father's  estate. 
During  his  childhooa  he  was  sickly.  This  confined 
him  at  home,  and  together  with  the  remote  situation 


15 

of  his  mother,  who  resided  near  the  sea  shore,  east 
of  Snowhill,  deprived  him  of  the  advantages  of  a 
school,  during  his  early  childhood.  Yet,  unpropitious 
as  were  his  circumstances,  with  a  little  occasional 
attention  from  his  mother,  he  learned  to  read  cor- 
rectly, at  the  early  age  of  five  or  six  years.  Being 
the  youngest  child,  and  doomed  by  his  very  delicate 
health,  to  the  fire-side,  so  soon  as  he  learned  to  read 
he  made  books  the  principal  amusement  of  his  child- 
hood, until  the  love  of  reading  became  his  ruling 
passion.  With  as  little  attention  from  his  mother, 
he  also  acquired  the  art  of  penmanship,  so  as  to 
write  not  only  a  legible,  but  an  elegant  hand.  Sub- 
sequently he  was  put  to  school,  under  the  tuition  of 
Mr.  Purnell  F.  Smith,  now  the  Rev.  Purnell  F.  Smith, 
of  Georgetown  Cross  Roads,  Kent  count}^  Mary- 
land ;  by  whose  instructions  Mr.  Spence  considered 
himself  much  benefited,  and  for  whom,  throughout 
life,  he  cultivated  the  sentiments  of  gratitude  and  es- 
teem. At  about  twelve  years  of  age,  he  was  sent  to 
Buckingham  Academy,  under  the  guardianship  of 
his  brother  John,  where  he  remained  for  some  time 
under  the  tuition  of  a  Mr.  Hopkins.  Here  he  prose- 
cuted with  ardour  and  almost  unprecedented  success, 
the  study  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages.  He 
was  then  removed  to  the  academy  at  Snowhill, 
where  he  terminated  his  academical  studies  at  the  age 
of  seventeen  years.  Immediately  afterwards,  he  com- 
menced the  study  of  the  law,  under  the  late  Judge 
Robins,  of  his  native  county,  and  continued  under 
the   legal  instructions  of   that  eminent   gentleman, 


16 

until  duly  qualified  for  the  practice  of  the  profession. 
In  1820  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  at  Snowhill, 
and  subsequently  at  Princess  Anne,  the  seat  of  jus- 
tice for  Somerset  county  in  the  same  State.  In  1822, 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Margaret,  second  daughter 
of  the  honourable  gentleman  under  whose  superin- 
tendence we  have  just  said  he  prosecuted  his  legal 
studies.  In  the  same  year,  and  for  some  years  sub- 
sequent, he  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  I^egislature 
of  the  State.  In  1826,  he  was  appointed  by  the 
electoral  college  to  the  Senate,  for  six  years.  In 
this  honourable  body,  he  took  his  seat,  and  soon  be- 
came, and  continued  to  be,  throughout  the  whole 
term,  one  of  its  most  useful  and  influential  members. 
For  his  talents,  fairness,  candour,  and  general  ex- 
cellence of  character,  he  was  so  highly  esteemed, 
that  not  unfrequently  his  opinions  were  consulted, 
and  his  counsels  followed,  by  the  party  opposed  to 
him  in  general  politics.  His  political  friends  would 
gladly  have  continued  him  in  public  life,  and  the  peo- 
ple would  have  elevated  him  to  the  highest  office 
within  their  gift,  but  his  attachment  to  books,  his  ha- 
bits of  sedentary  life,  and  domestic  retirement,  and 
especially  those  high  motives  of  religion,  which  none 
but  the  christian  can  duly  appreciate,  rendered  him 
altogether  averse  to  public  life,  and  to  the  accept- 
ance of  any  offices  of  honour  farther  than  a  regard 
to  the  wishes  of  his  friends,  and  sense  of  duty  to  the 
people  who  loved  and  respected  him,  rendered  it  in 
his  judgment  indispensable. 
He  continued  throughout  life,  to  pursue  the  prac- 


17 

tice  of  the  law,  although  it  was  a  profession  in  which 
he  never  delighted.  From  the  commencement  of  his 
professional  career,  he  had  a  fair  share  of  practice, 
although  at  that  time,  there  were  several  men  of  em- 
inence at  the  same  bar.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years 
afterwards,  when  two  of  these  gentlemen  had  been 
elevated  to  the  bench,  and  the  place  of  one  of  them 
vacated  by  death,  he  became  the  senior  practitioner 
in  the  county  where  he  lived,  and  with  all  his  aver- 
sion to  the  business,  and  the  difficulty  with  which  his 
services  could  be,  obtained,  he  was  much  sought 
after,  especially  in  all  important  cases.  He  not  only 
stood  first  in  the  county  courts  where  he  ordinarily 
practised,  but  was  also  eminent  in  the  highest  courts 
in  the  State,  to  which  he  was  almost  always  called, 
when  appeals  were  taken  on  important  cases,  in  the 
counties  where  he  practised. 

As  a  practical  and  experimental  agriculturist,  he 
was  successful,  not  only  in  the  culture  of  his  own 
lands,  but  also  in  diffusing  the  spirit  of  agricultural 
improveinent  in  his  immediate  neighbourhood,  and 
throughout  his  own,  and  some  of  the  neighbouring 
counties. 

Mr.  Spence  was  of  a  middle  stature ;  his  hair 
black;  his  eyes  dark  and  penetrating;  and  when 
warm  in  debate,  his  countenance  highly  animated. 
His  natural  capabihties  were  of  a  very  high  order 
To  a  sound  and  discriminating  judgment,  he  united 
strong  conception  and  glowing  imagination,  chasten- 
ed by  a  fine  taste.  And,  what  is  rarely  possessed  by 
a  mind  endowed  with  a  large  portion  of  these  qua- 
2* 


18 

lities,  his  was  a  memory  of  the  most  unrivalled  tena- 
city.    The  writer  of  this  sketch  has  been  recently 
informed  by  two  highly  respectable  gentlemen,  for- 
merly schoolmates  with  Mr.  Spence,  that  when  at 
school,  he  has  been  known  to  take  a  page  in  a  Latin 
grammar,  containing  little  else  but  a  succession  of 
names,  wholly  unconnected  in  sense,  as  in  the  rules 
and  exceptions  for  the  gender  of  nouns,  and  after  hav- 
ing read  it  over  once,  and  that  the  first  time,  to  lay 
down  the  book,  and  repeat  the  whole  without  the 
least  mistake ;  and  that  with  infinite  ease,  in  a  very 
few  minutes,  he  could  prepare  to  recite  his  lessons, 
better  than  any  other  one  in  the  class  could,  after  the 
most  laborious  and  assiduous  study.  The  fact  is,  that 
during  his  whole  life,  he  almost  literally  committed  to 
memory  every  book  that  he  read.     And  his  reading 
too,  was  very  extensive,  in  Law,  Theology,  History,. 
Agriculture  and  Politics.     His  Belles-lettres  reading 
was  almost  boundless.     Endued  with   an  exquisite 
taste,  he  caught,  not  only  the  spirit,  but  the  very 
ideas  and  the  precise  language  of  the  best  English 
poets.  His  literary  friends  have  been  perfectly  aston- 
ished   at   the    accuracy  with  which,   to   the   spirit, 
word,  and  letter,  he  could  repeat  the  poetical  works 
of  Goldsmith,  Cowper,  Gray,  Pope,  Moore,  Byron, 
Shakspeare,  and  others,  whilst  the  religious  amongst 
them,  have  been  equally  delighted,  by  the  pious  fer- 
vour, with  which  he  was  wont  to  quote  the  sacred 
poetry  of  Dr.  Watts,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  best 
of  English  hymnologists.    Possessing  a  memory  that 
never  let  loose  its  grasp  on  knowledge,  an  industry  in 


19 

reading  that  never  wearied,  and  withal  a  judgment 
exquisitely  discriminating,  his  learning  in  law,  theo- 
logy and  history,  especially  ecclesiastical  history,, 
was  such,  as  would  have  been  highly  respectable  for 
a  man  who  had  devoted  his  whole  life  to  any  one  of 
those  branches.  In  his  pleadings  at  the  bar,  his 
knowledge  of  law  and  facts  was  so  perfect,  as 
sometimes  to  confound  the  opposite  counsel,  and  to 
astonish  the  court,  whilst  he  himself  appeared  wholly 
unconscious  of  his  own  superiority.  But  as  a  law- 
yer, he  knew  nothing  of  those  deceptive  artifices, 
and  subterfuges  from  the  face  of  truth  and  honesty, 
W'hich  have  sometimes  dishonoured  the  name  of  the 
legal  profession.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  as  con- 
scientious in  the  cause  of  veracity  and  equity,  in  the 
management  of  a  case  before  a  court,  as  he  v/as  in 
any  other  business  transaction  in  life.  In  his  very 
soul,  he  despised  duplicity,  meanness,  or  dishonoura- 
ble dealing  of  any  kind.  In  his  practice,  he  declined 
undertaking  causes  which  he  knew  to  be  bad,  and 
when  in  any  instance  he  was  deceived  by  his  client 
into  the  advocacy  of  a  bad  case,  he  just  made  a  fair 
representation  of  law  and  facts  relating  to  the  sub- 
ject, and  then  left  it,  without  any  colouring  of  false- 
hood, or  varnish  of  sophistry,  to  the  decision  of  the 
constituted  arbiters.  He  would  not  impair  his  own 
moral  integrity,  nor  violate  the  decisions  of  his  con- 
science, to  gain  an  unrighteous  cause  for  any  man. 

His  social  qualities  were  such  as  to  render  him 
universally  beloved.  He  could  accommodate  himself 
to  society  of  the  highest  or  the  humblest  order  of 


20 

intellect,  or  cultivation,  and  never  failed  to  render 
himself  pleasant  and  interesting.  In  the  true  sense 
of  the  Scripture,  he  became  all  things  to  all  men. 

He  was  a  man  of  benevolence  and  philanthropy; 
but  in  the  distribution  of  his  charities,  he  was  pru- 
dent and  unostentatious.  In  this  he  appeared  not  to 
have  let  his  left  hand  know  what  his  right  hand  did. 
For  some  time  previous,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
he  contributed  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year 
to  be  divided  equally  between  two  feeble  congre- 
gations, within  the  bounds  of  his  own  presbytery, 
to  aid  them  in  supporting  a  minister  of  the  gospel. 
This  benefaction  he  committed  to  the  agency  of  the 
late  Rev.  Robert  M.  Laird,  then  minister  at  Princess 
Anne,  to  be  distributed  to  those  congregations,  w^ith 
a  strict  injunction,  not  to  reveal  the  donor.  This 
fact  in  his  history  was  not  understood,  until  it  acci- 
dentally transpired  since  his  decease.  No  doubt 
many  other  of  his  benefactions  will  never  be  known, 
except  by  those  immediately  benefited  by  them,  until 
the  revelations  of  the  great  day. 

From  a  child,  he  was  of  a  serious,  inquiring,  and 
contemplative  mind,  early  evinced  a  strong  interest 
in  religious  things,  and  read  all  the  books  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religion,  that  could  be  found  within  his  reach. 
He  was  undoubtedly  the  child  of  many  prayers. 
About  the  age  of  seventeen  years,  some  twelve 
months  after  his  mother's  death,  he  became  a  mem- 
ber in  full  standing  in  the  Presbyterian  church  at 
Snowhill.  From  that  time  until  1829,  about  thir- 
teen years,  he  continued  a  pious  and  exemplary  pri- 


21 

vate  member  of  that  church.  Then  he  was  elected 
and  ordained  in  it  a  ruling  elder,  the  office  of  which 
he  valued,  and  magnified  throughout  his  whole  sub- 
sequent life.  He  delighted  to  visit  the  sick,  and  to 
pour  the  balm  of  consolation  into  wounded  spirits ; 
and  also,  in  case  of  the  absence  of  the  pastor,  in- 
stead of  permitting  the  Sabbaths  to  pass  away  in  si- 
lence, imitating  the  examples  of  the  elders  of  the 
primitive  churches  he  scarcely  ever  failed,  at  the 
request  of  his  brethren  of  the  eldership,  to  hft  his 
voice  in  the  public  congregation,  and  warn  sinners 
to  escape  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  exhort 
saints  to  the  discharge  of  their  duty.  These  per- 
formances were  always  able,  and  most  acceptable 
and  edifying  to  the  people.  He  is  said  to  have  pos- 
sessed extraordinary  gifts  in  prayer,  which,  together 
with  the  character  for  unblemished  morals  and  un- 
affected piety,  which  he  sustained,  rendered  the  part 
he  took  in  prayer-meetings  delightful  to  the  pious, 
and  affecting  to  all  present.  And  whilst  in  his  pri- 
vate conversation  and  public  exhortations,  he  was 
instructive  to  christians  of  cultivated  minds,  he  could 
also  charm  the  uneducated  believer,  with  his  most 
child-like  simplicity,  on  the  subject  of  practical  and 
experimental  piety.  The  current  of  his  devotion  be- 
came deeper  and  stronger,  as  he  advanced  in  life. 
And  with  the  growth  of  his  religion,  his  interest  in 
all  that  pertains  to  the  church  of  God  on  earth,  be- 
came more  and  more  lively.  Ardently  did  he  culti- 
vate an  acquaintance  with  the  various  systems  of 
theological  philosophy,  and  ecclesiastical  polity,  until 


22 

his  knowledge  of  theology  as  a  system,  and  espe- 
cially of  ecclesiastical  history  and  church  govern- 
ment, was  such  as  would  have  been  reputable  in  a 
professor  of  any  one  of  those  departments.  So  great 
was  his  interest  in  the  advancement  of  religion  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  church,  that  for  some  years  be- 
fore his  death,  he  was  deliberating  whether  it  was 
not  his  duty,  as  a  servant  of  the  great  Master,  to 
withdraw  from  all  secular  pursuits,  and  to  devote 
himself  exclusively  to  the  work  of  the  christian  mi- 
nistry. Two  difficulties,  however,  always  met  him, 
after  he  began  to  turn  his  face  towards  the  ministry. 
One  was,  his  almost  invincible  dislike  to  bodily  exer- 
tion, and  the  other  was,  his  feeble  health.  He  always 
found  himself  physically  disqualified  for  the  great 
work  to  which  his  spirit  aspired.  It  is  believed,  how- 
ever, that  he  lived  almost  to  the  last,  in  hope  that 
Providence  would  ultimately  open  the  door  before 
him,  by  giving  him  better  health,  and  grace  to  over- 
come his  inactive  habits.  This  hope  was  never  re- 
alized. 

As  a  ruling  elder,  he  sometimes  attended  the  judi- 
catories of  the  church,  and  on  every  occasion,  by 
his  capabihty  and  zeal,  he  was  an  influential  and 
useful  member.  His  views  on  theology  were  exten- 
sive and  deep,  yet  clenr.  He  considered  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  as  one  of 
the  best  human  exhibitions  of  Scripture  truth  ever 
made,  but  was  too  just  in  his  views,  and  too  catholic 
in  his  spirit  and  feelings,  to  unchurch  all  who  might 
differ  from  him  on  the  peculiarly  moot  points  of  phi- 


losophy,  by  which  that  truth  may  be  explained.  He 
believed  that  an  agreement  in  doctrine,  so  far  as  to 
adopt  the  statements  in  the  very  language  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  is  as  much  as  can  reasonably 
be  expected  in  a  body  containing  some  two  or  three 
thousand  ministers,  and  some  five  or  six  times  that 
number  of  ruling  elders,  educated  in  diffeient  modes 
of  thinking,  in  different  systems  of  philosophy,  and 
influenced  by  different  local  feelings  and  prejudices. 
Under  this  conviction,  he  frowned  equally  on  those 
who  would  disturb  the  church  by  unmeaning  or  per- 
nicious innovations,  and  those  who  would  rend  her 
sacred  body  by  their  contentions  for  stereotype  tech- 
nicalities and  party  shibboleths. 

Mr.  Spencers  peculiar  condition  in  his  boyhood,  as 
has  been  already  noticed,  subjected  him  to  confine- 
ment at  that  very  period  of  life  when  bodily  action 
is  most  necessary  for  the  invigoration  of  the  human 
frame.  This  confinement  naturally  induced  early 
sedentary  habits,  which,  while  they  contributed  vastly 
to  his  very  great  amount  of  reading,  yet  created 
that  habitual  disrelish  for  bodily  exertion,  which  prov- 
ed the  greatest  misfortune  of  his  life,  and  prepared 
him  to  become  the  victim  of  a  premature  grave. 
But  for  this,  he  would  doubtless  have  been  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  men  of  the  present  age.  For  a 
long  time  he  felt  his  health  to  be  on  the  decline,  until 
eventually  his  sight  almost  utterly  failed  him.  He 
was  advised  by  his  physicians  to  submit  to  bodily 
exercise,  and  to  relinquish  his  incessant  reading  of 
books.     He  did  partially  submit  himself  to  this  regi- 


24 

men,  but  his  aversion  to  bodily  exercise  was  so  in- 
vincible, and  his  passion  for  reading  so  strong,  as 
not  to  be  wholly  subdued  by  any  resolutions  which 
he  could  forna.  But  by  his  very  partial  subnaission 
to  the  remedies  prescribed,  his  health  was  in  a  good 
degree  recovered,  and  his  sight  restored.  He  never 
had  much  zest  for  the  practice  of  his  profession,  or 
for  the  duties  of  political  life  ;  but  after  this  severe 
visitation,  he  endeavoured  wholly  to  withdraw  from 
the  scenes  connected  with  these  pursuits,  and  to  make 
the  cultivation  of  personal  piety,  and  usefulness  in 
the  cause  of  his  Saviour,  the  exclusive  objects  of 
his  life.  After  this,  he  wholly  withdrew  from  all 
political  contest;  but  his  previous  engagements  in  liti- 
gations not  then  decided,  and  the  importunity  of  cli- 
ents who  knew  the  value  of  his  services,  rendered 
his  total  abandonment  of  the  bar  almost  impossi- 
ble. But  after  this,  he  became  more  increasedly 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  religion,  and  more  thoroughly 
dead  to  the  world.  More  than  ever  before,  he  felt 
himself  to  be  a  stranger  and  a  pilgrim  on  the  earth, 
sighed  for  purer  air  and  brighter  skies,  and  longed 
to  be  with  Christ.  This  disrelish  for  the  world  could 
have  been  nothing  else,  but  that  crucifixion  to  the 
things  of  time,  which  the  christian  feels,  when  by 
faith,  he  surveys  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer's  king- 
dom, and  recognises  the  heavenly  felicities  not  only 
as  his,  but  also  near  at  hand.  It  could  not  have  been 
an  austere  misanthropy;  for  never  was  man  more 
delighted  in  the  society  of  his  family,  or  more  cheer- 
ed by  the  presence  of  his  friends  than  he.     It  could 


25 

not  have  been  the  repinings  of  a  disappointed  ambi- 
tion, for  in  the  courts  where  he  practised,  his  legal 
standing  was  all  that  could  gratify  ambition,  and  his 
political  estimation  among  the  people,  all  that  would 
have  secured  him  the  highest  honours  they  could  be- 
stow. Nor  could  it  have  been  the  vexation  of  pe- 
cuniary embarrassment,  for  his  earthly  possessions 
were  not  only  unincumbered,  but  abundant.  His  in- 
difference to  the  honours  and  the  possessions  of  the 
present  state,  must  then  undoubtedly  have  been,  be- 
cause he  was  crucified  to  the  world,  and  the  world 
to  him.  And  the  nearer  he  approached  the  termina- 
tion of  his  earthly  pilgrimage,  the  more  this  cruci- 
fixion became  apparent.  During  the  session  of  the 
court,  in  the  November  preceding  his  death,  he  re- 
marked, that  he  "  never  expected  to  plead  another 
cause  in  a  court  of  civil  law,"  and  declaring  himself 
to  be  weary  of  the  world,  he  remarked  to  one  of  his 
family,  "  If  my  house  w^ere  in  order,  I  would  rather 
depart  and  be  with  Christ."  Early  in  the  month  fol- 
lowing, the  illness  commenced  which  eventuated  in 
his  dissolution.  He  endured  the  painful  trial  with 
patience,  composure  and  resignation.  He  was  fully 
aware  from  the  beginning  of  the  attack,  that  he  could 
never  recover,  and  expressed  his  willingness  to  die. 
One  of  his  special  fears  was,  that  he  was  too  anx- 
ious to  escape  from  his  post  of  trial  and  suffering  in 
this  world,  before  his  Father  in  heaven  had  called 
him  hence.  To  the  last,  his  faith  remained  strong, 
and  his  hopes  bright.  Knowing  himself  to  be  justi- 
fied by  faith,  he  had  peace  with  God.  In  this  sweet 
3 


26 

peace,  he  patiently  awaited  the  call  of  his  God.  On 
the  morning  of  the  11th  January,  1836,  the  messen- 
ger death  delivered  the  call,  which  summoned  him 
to  spend  the  noon  of  that  day  in  his  Father's  pre- 
sence. He  departed  without  a  murmur  or  a  groan, 
to  be  with  Christ,  and  to  sit  down  with  him  at  his 
table. 

Thus  terminated  the  earthly  existence  of  one,  who 
possessed  all  the  natural  elements  of  mental  great- 
ness, but  who  never  enjoyed  that  celebrity — that  no- 
toriety afar  ofl',  which  his  talents,  not  to  say  his  mo- 
ral worth,  justly  merited,  and  which  men  of  powers 
far  inferior  to  his,  not  unfrequently  enjoy.  That  he 
was  known — honourably  and  affectionately  known, 
in  the  neighbourhood  where  he  resided,  in  the  coun- 
ties in  which  he  practised  law,  and  in  no  mean  de- 
gree, in  the  superior  courts  of  his  native  State,  and 
in  her  legislative  halls,  where  his  talents  were  an  or- 
nament— is  certainly  true;  but  still  in  comparison 
with  his  endowments,  his  character  as  an  intellectual 
man  was  in  a  great  degree  unknown.  So  indeed  it 
was,  because  he  shunned  notoriety  and  sought  retire- 
ment. But  why  were  these  endowments  made  by 
him  who  does  nothing  in  vain,  to  be  spent  in  the 
shades  of  retirement,  when  they  might  have  adorn- 
ed and  blessed  a  nation  or  a  world  1  Why  a  mind 
like  his  should  have  been  united  to  a  tenement  of  clay 
so  frail ;  why  it  should  have  been  cast  upon  a  spot  of 
earth  almost  insulated  from  all  the  world ;  and  why 
its  energies  should  have  been  confined  to  so  limited  a 
sphere,  while  far  humbler  minds  rise  to  eminence, 


2^7 

and  load  almost  every  breeze  of  heaven  with  the 
burden  of  their  fame,  is  one  of  the  inscrutable  things 
in  the  providence  of  Him  whose  ways  are  not  as 
ours ;  yet  this  we  do  know,  that  heaven  can  find  ap- 
propriate exercise  for  the  noblest  powers.  No  hu- 
man endowments  can  certainly  be  too  excellent  for 
the  service  of  Him,  who  makes  angels  that  excel  in 
strength,  his  ministers.  And  although  He  makes 
neither  health,  nor  locality,  nor  worldly  acquisition, 
the  condition  of  his  grace,  yet  for  aught  that  we  can 
tell,  in  his  hands  whose  dark  paths  are  in  the  deep 
waters,  those  circumstances  in  life,  that  we  are  wont 
to  call  unfortunate,  may  be  the  very  parts  in  the 
plan  of  mercy,  which  he  chooses  to  employ  and 
honour,  in  weaning  immortal  spirits  from  the  fading 
splendours  of  this  world,  to  crown  them  with  the  im- 
perishable glories  of  the  next. 

Mr.  Spence  wisely  did  what  is  done  by  few  in- 
deed of  the  great  and  the  wise  of  this  world.  He 
preferred  the  things  that  are  unseen,  to  the  things 
that  are  seen.  Whatever  celebrity  he  might  have 
obtained  as  a  man  of  taste  and  genius,  or  as  a  scho- 
lar of  varied  and  liberal  learning?  whatever  w^ealth 
he  might  have  acquired,  as  a  lawyer  of  extensive 
erudition  and  practical  eminence ;  and  whatever 
fame  he  might  have  secured,  as  a  statesman  of 
large  and  enlightened  views  and  unimpeachable  in- 
tegrity— all  this,  he  was  willing  to  sacrifice,  and  to 
count  but  loss,  that  he  might  win  Christ  and  be  found 
in  him. 

Though  dead  he  yet  speaks  to  the  living.    His. 


28 

example  admonishes  the  ambitious,  that  in  his  esti- 
mation the  service  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus  is 
more  desirable  than  the  renown  of  courts  and  se- 
nates, and,  that  no  powers  of  mind  are  too  great, 
no  stores  of  learning  too  rich,  and  no  gems  of  ge- 
nius too  brilliant,  to  be  cast  down  at  the  foot  of  the 
cross. 


LETTERS 


THE    EARLY   HISTORY 


THE    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCHES 


THE     PENINSULA, 


ADDBESSED  TO  THE 


LATE   REV.    ROBERT   M.   LAIRD 


3* 


31 


LETTER    I. 


Introduetory  remarks.— The  writer's  object  stated.— None  but  the  pious  entertain 
right  notiiiiis  of  the  church. — God's  moral  pei-fecticns  best  seen  in  the  church. 
— The  condition  of  the  Peninsula  comprehendincj  Somerset  and  Worcester 
counties  in  Mar)  land,  ajid  Accomack  county,  Virginia,  at  the  time  of  its  early 
settlement,  peculiar  in  regard  to  libeity  of  conscience.— Tlie  government  of  Vir- 
ginia founded  by  James  I.,  and  partook  of  his  intolerant  character. — This  into- 
lerance increased  by  acts  of  the  provincial  legislature. — Most  intolerant  towards 
Puritans  and  Quakers.— Puritjin  missionaries  from  Massachusetts  driven  away, 
— Mr.  Jefferson's  mistake  iu  accusing  American  Presbyterians  of  persecution. 


Rev.  and  Dear  Sir, — 

I  have  too  long  delayed  the  performance  of  my 
promise,  to  furnish  you  with  such  of  the  facts  in 
my  possession,  in  relation  to  the  first  Presbyterian 
churches  organized  on  this  peninsula,  as  I  consider- 
ed interesting.  Other  engagements  and  ill  health 
have  heretofore  interfered  with  my  purpose ;  but  the 
very  agreeable  task  is  at  length  undertaken.  I  in- 
tend to  write  familiar  letters  to  a  friend; — be  not  sur- 
prised, then,  when  you  find,  that  I  neither  "  pinch 
the  plaits  of  my  phraseology,  nor  place  my  patches 
and  feathers,"  to  suit  the  taste  of  any  one  but  your- 
self. My  object  will  be  to  put  you  in  the  possession 
of  a  mass  of  facts,  in  relation  to  this  subject,  and 
you  must  suffer  me  to  do  this  in  my  own  way. 
Should  my  manner  be  wild,  or  desultory,  or  the  mat- 
ter be  irrelevant,  or  unimportant,  in  your  judgment, 
or  should  1  appear  to  slight  some  subjects,  and  to  give 


32 

undue  prominence  to  others ;  or  should  I  repeat  the 
same  thing  over  and  over  again  ;  you  will,  I  doubt 
not,  bear  w^ith  me.  The  web  will  be  yours  after  I 
shall  have  woven  it :  but  let  me  select  its  materials, 
and  arrange  its  colours. 

To  one  who  knows  nothing  of  the  stupendous 
agency,  exerted  by  the  church  of  God  in  this  fallen 
world,  my  present  employment  may  seem  a  very 
humble  one;  but  you  and  I  view  it  differently.  That 
none  save  those 

" whose  souls  are  lig-hted. 


Witli  wisdom  from  on  high,'*" 

can  form  any  just  notion  of  the  church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  I  am  as  firmly  persuaded  as  of  any  kindred 
truth ;  and  that  preacher  who,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
communicates  a  right  knowledge  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  church  to  a  fellow  being,  is  made  the  in- 
strument of  saving  a  soul  alive.  No  man  hath  seen 
God  at  any  time,  or  can  see  him  and  live ;  but  in 
his  church  he  makes  a  most  glorious  revelation  of 
himself,  yet  so  veiled,  that  a 

** mortal  eye  can  bear  the  sig-ht.** 

All  the  works  of  his  hands  show  his  wisdom,  his 
power,  his  goodness; — but  they  make  no  disclosure 
of  his  holiness,  his  majesty,  his  inflexible  justice,  or 
his  purposes  of  mercy  to  a  fallen  and  rebellious  race. 
In  the  church,  as  in  a  grand  panorama,  the  believer 
can  see  the  whole  of  that  "  new  and  living  way"  in 
which  God  can  be  just,  and  yet  justify  the  ungodly. 
The  bloom  of  Eden,  blasted  by  the  first  transgres- 


33 

sion;  Mount  Sinai  arrayed  in  terrors;  Mount  Calvary 
clothed  in  wonders — and  all  the  glories  of  redemp- 
tion, are  exhibited  in  the  church.  Truly  "  the  king's 
daughter  is  all  glorious  within;  her  raiment  is  of 
wrought  gold."  What  is  the  richest  and  most  ex- 
tended empire  that  burthens  the  earth,  when  com- 
pared with  the  smallest  branch  of  the  Redeemer's 
kingdom  1  The  glories  of  the  Godhead- are  partially 
radiated  upon  every  believer, — the  church  collects 
all  the  rays  which  shine  upon  the  whole 

** sacramental  host  of  God's  elect." 

i  write  about  a  kingdom,  which  God  planted,  after  it 
had  been  purchased  by  the  blood  of  his  own  Son : 
and  I  am  not  ashamed  of  my  employment.  But 
enough  of  this. 

The  condition  of  that  part  of  the  peninsula,  now 
composing  Somerset  and  Worcester  counties  in  Ma- 
ryland, and  Accomack  county,  in  Virginia,  was  in 
some  respects  peculiar,  as  the  interests  of  religion 
were  regarded,  for  many  years  after  the  country  had 
been  settled  by  Europeans. 

Virginia  was  a  royal  colony  whose  form  of  go- 
vernment was  singularly  constructed.  You  are  al- 
ready acquainted  with  the  disastrous  failure  of  the 
attempt  to  settle  that  part  of  this  continent,  made  by 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  in  virtue  of  letters  patent,  grant- 
ed to  him  for  that  purpose  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  It 
was  after  that  bold  projector  and  distinguished  man 
had  been  convicted  of  high  treason  by  a  perversion 
of  law,  and  in  despite  of  justice,  and  had  suffered 
death  upon  the  scaffold,  that  Virginia  was  perma- 


34 

nently  peopled,  and  that  form  of  government  organ- 
ized, which  continued  to  exist,  with  some  modifica- 
tions, until  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  As  to  its 
creation  and  character,  it  is  enough  for  our  purpose 
to  say,  that  James  the  First  of  England  founded  it 
by  three  several  charters  granted  to  a  company: — 
the  first  bore  date,  April  10,  1606 ;  the  second.  May 
23,  1609;  the  third,  March  12,  1611-12.  But  for 
the  cowardice  of  that  Prince,  he  would  have  been  a 
despot ;  and  he  breathed  into  those  instruments  all 
that  blind  and  unrelenting  bigotry  for  which  he  was 
remarkable,  from  the  time  of  his  accession  to  the 
throne  of  England  until  his  death..  It  is  hard  to  de- 
termine, whether  he  discovered  greater  dislike  to  the 
professors  of  that  faith  in  which  his  murdered  mo- 
ther died,  or  to  the  church  in  which  he  was  reared, 
and  of  which  he  was  a  hypocritical  member,  until, 
by  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  he  succeeded  to  the  crown 
of  England.  All  apostates  resemble  each  other  in 
one  thing :  their  dislike  to  the  society  froni  which 
they  have  fallen,  rarely  knows  mitigation  or  end. 
This  remark  applies  with  equal  propriety,  to  Lucifer, 
Julian,  and  England's  James  I.  From  the  charac- 
ter and  feelings  of  the  man,  we  might  expect  just 
such  a  form  of  government  as  that  of  colonial  Vir- 
ginia. It  bore  his  image  ;  and  the  manner  of  its  ad- 
ministration proves,  that  his  love  of  absolute  power; 
his  lust  for  honour,  wealthy  territory ;  and  his  bitter 
and  intolerant  spirit,  pervaded  all  its  ramifications. 
It  is  true  that  those  charters  granted  by  King  James, 
were  afterwards^  annulled  by  judgment  of  the  Court 


35 

of  King's  Bench ; — but  the  government  had  receiv- 
ed its  tone,  and  its  principles  remained  unchanged. 

At  the  period  to  which  this  letter  relates,  the  per- 
secution of  all  classes  of  English  nonconformists, 
was  more  vindictive  than  it  had  been  at  any  time 
since  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth;  and 
all  those  statutes,  passed  for  that  purpose,  during  her 
reign,  and  that  of  her  successor,  James,  and  of  his 
son  Charles,  not  only  extended  to  Virginia,  but  were 
enforced  there  with  greater  rigour  than  in  the  pa- 
rent country  itself  Ail  that,  however,  was  not 
enough  to  satisfy  those  in  power;  and  by  Provincial 
legislation  further  })ains  and  penalties  were  prescrib- 
ed for  those,  w^ho  would  not  conform  to  the  esta- 
blished church,*  Puritans  and  Quakers,  were  more 
obnoxious  to  the  government  of  Virginia,  than  non- 
conformists of  any  other  name.  You  are  famihar 
with  the  fact,  that  the  Puritan  missionaries  from 
Massachusetts,  who  visited  that  province  at  the  earn- 
est request  of  a  portion  of  the  people,  were  not  only 
*'  despitefully  used,  and  evil  entreated,"  but  actually 
driven  away.  It  is  equally  true,  that  many  Puritan 
families,  who  had  settled  there,  were  compelled  by 
cruel  persecution,  to  leave  the  colony.  Understand 
me,  I  beg  you,  when  the  w^ord  Puritan  is  used  here, 
that  no  term  of  reproach  is  intended ; — so  far  from 
that,  I  believe  those  so  named  in  derision,  have  in- 
cluded in  their  number,  some  of  the  holiest  men, 
who  have  lived  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles. 

*  See  some  of  those  Acts  in  Appendix  A, 


3G 

Speaking  of  names,  reminds  me  of  a  strange  mis- 
take into  vviiich  Mr.  Jefferson  has  fallen  in  his 
"  Notes  on  Virginia."  I  quote  the  passage,  not  only 
to  call  your  attention  to  the  error,  but  because  it 
corroborates,  in  other  respects,  my  own  statements. 
The  work  was  written  in  1781-2.  He  says  : — "The 
first  settlers  in  this  country  [Virginia,]  were  emi- 
grants froni  England,  of  the  English  church,  just  at 
a  point  of  time  when  it  was  flushed  with  a  complete 
victory  over  the  religious  of  all  other  persuasions. 
Possessed,  as  they  became,  with  the  powers  of  mak- 
ing, administering,  and  executing  the  laws,  they 
showed  equal  intolerance  in  this  country  [i.  e.  Vir- 
ginia,] with  their  Preshyterian  brethren,  v/ho  had 
emigrated  to  the  northern  government.  The  poor 
Quakers  were  flying  from  persecution  in  England. 
They  cast  their  eyes  on  these  new  countries,  as  asy- 
lums of  civil  and  religious  freedom  :  but  they  found 
them  free  only  for  the  reigning  sect."  When  did 
Presbyterians  in  America,  ever  persecute  any  man 
on  account  of  his  religious  faith  ?  I  have  neither 
heard,  nor  read  of  any  such  persecution.  But  it  is 
apparent,  that  he  refers  to  the  Independents,  or  Con- 
gregationalists,  of  New  England.  You  may  tell  me, 
that  the  man  who  would  charge  upon  the  inspired 
Psalmist  the  exclamation  :  "  Lord  !  what  have  I  done 
that  the  wicked  should  praise  me,"  might  very  rea- 
dily confound  the  names  Preshyteriaii  and  Independ- 
ent That  will  not  remove  the  difficulty  ;  for  his 
works  prove,  that  he  laboured  more  sedulously  to 
investigate  the  peculiarities  of  religious  creeds,  and 


#  37 

to  detect  faults  in  the  lives  and  characters  of  their 
professors,  than  to  become  familiarly  acquainted 
with  the  Bible.  It  is  also  untrue,  that  no  American 
province  offered  to  the  "  poor  Quakers"  an  asylum. 
There  was  one  splendid  exception,  to  which  I  shall 
call  your  attention  hereafter. 


38 


LETTER   II 


The  writer's  esteem  for  Mr.  Jefferson,  althoup;h  he  considers  him  erroneous  in 
matters  of  religion — The  government  of  Maryland  under  the  original  proprie- 
taiy,  the  Catholic  Lord  Baltimore,  was  tolerant— So  that  south  of  the  line  which 
separated  Maryland  from  Virginia,  was  Protestant  ])ersecuiion,  and  north  of  it, 
Cathol  c  toltration.— Even  Lord  Baltimore  himself,  when  on  his  travels  in  Vir- 
ginia, wa«  on  one  occasion  required  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  supre- 
macy.—The  early  settlers  of  Maryland,  as  those  of  New  England,  were  driven 
from  Europe  by  ])ersecution — Mai-yland  the  first  government  in  Christendom, 
which  made  religious  toleration  a  corner-stone.— Remained  tolerant  until  it  passed 
from  a  Roman  Catholic,  to  the  Protestant  Prince  of  Orange — The  Bishop  of 
Sahsbury  is  thought  to  have  been  favourable  to  intolei-ant  enactments. 


Reverend  Sir, — 

Because  of  the  manner  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  is 
mentioned  in  my  last  letter,  it  may  be  necessary  for 
me  to  say,  that  I  have  always  regarded  him  as 
a  very  great  man;  but  I  believe  he  entertained 
many  of  those  opinions  which  deluged  "  unbaptized 
France"  in  blood  ;  and  that  he  was  a  bitter  enemy 
to  the  religion  of  the  Bible.  I  have  no  unkind  feel- 
ing to  any  one  of  God^s  creatures;  but  no  name, 
however  distinguished,  will  induce  me  to  suppress 
what  I  consider  pertinent  truth. 

Two  governments  could  not  be  more  unlike,  as  to 
religious  toleration,  than  were  those  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland  during  their  colonial  existence.  The 
charter  of  Maryland,  was  granted  by  Charles  I., 
on  the  20th  day  of  June,  1632,  to  Csecilius,  Lord 
Baron  of  Baltimore.     He  had  just  succeeded  to  the 


39 

title  and  estate  of  his  father,  George,  the  first  Lord 
Baltimore,  to  whom  the  charter  had  been  promised, 
but  who  died  before  it  passed  the  seals  of  office. 
But  it  was,  no  doubt,  fashioned,  so  far  as  it  affected 
the  rights  of  conscience,  by  the  wishes  of  that  amia- 
ble and  tolerant  nobleman.  The  first  lord  proprie- 
tary and  his  successors,  carried  out  the  purposes  of 
their  benevolent  ancestor,  and  whilst  their  chartered 
rights  were  undisturbed,  the  inhabitants  of  Mary- 
land were  as  carefully  protected  in  worshipping  God 
according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  as  they  are 
at  this  time.  A  man  might  live  in  peace,  whether 
Jew,  Mohammedan,  or  Pagan;  w^hether  atheist,  de- 
ist, or  polytheist ;  provided  he  neither  molested  his 
neighbour,  nor  endangered  the  public  morals.  Reli- 
gious opinions  wrought  no  civil  disqualification;  and 
no  one  could  be  vexed  with  religious  tests,  or  legally 
taxed  to  support  any  church  of  any  name.  Never 
was  any  government  more  indulgent  to  persons  of 
all  religious  persuasions,  than  was  that  of  Maryland, 
whilst  the  Roman  Catholic  Lords  Barons  of  Balti- 
more controlled  it;  and  they  had  powers,  more  ample 
in  fact,  as  to  the  matter  under  consideration,  than 
could  have  been  exercised  by  the  first  James  or  his 
successor,  in  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain.  Much 
is  said,  and  no  doubt  with  truth,  about  the  persecu- 
tions by  Roman  Catholics,  because  of  what  they 
consider  heresies.  I  am  no  Roman  Catholic, — I 
doubt  whether  there  be  older  Presbyterian  blood  in 
America,  than  flows  in  my  veins  at  this  moment ; — 
but  let  us  do  justice. 


40 

You  will  now  understand  something  of  that  pe- 
culiarity of  condition  of  this  peninsula  in  regard  to 
religious  liberty,  for  many  years  after  its  first  settle- 
ment, which  is  referred  to  in  my  former  letter.  Con- 
sider the  great  difference  between  the  charters  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia  in  relation  to  religious  free- 
dom ;  and  the  widely  different  tempers  with  which 
their  governments  were  administered,  and  you  will 
then  see,  that  although  the  lines  which  separated 
their  peninsular  territory  was  "  a  right  line,"  neither 
more  visible  nor  tangible  than  a  parallel  of  latitude; 
yet  on  the  north  of  that  line,  an  individual  could  rely 
on  all  the  mildness  and  tolerance  of  the  charter  of 
Maryland,  and  the  government  which  it  created; — 
whilst  on  the  south  of  it  he  was  confronted,  not  only 
by  all  the  terrors  to  nonconformists,  conjured  up  by 
every  British  statute  at  that  time  in  force  in  Eng- 
land, but  also  by  pains  and  penalties  created  by  kin- 
dred laws  of  Virginia  fabrication,  equally  or  more 
cruel.  On  the  one  side  of  that  line,  a  man  might 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  con- 
science— on  the  other,  he  must  rely  upon  the  indem- 
nity of  the  government  to  protect  him  at  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  Christ,  or  be  made  to  endure  severe 
pains  and  pay  heavy  penalties.  When  Cajcilius,  the 
second  Lord  Baltimore,  visited  the  colony  of  Virgi- 
nia, he  was  required,  and  without  lawful  authority,  it 
is  believed,  to  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supre- 
macy; which,  of  course,  he  declined,  and  the  matter 
was  submitted  to  the  king  in  council.  This  fact  is 
mentioned  for  the  purpose  of  showing  to  what  ex- 


41 

tremes  the  loyalty  and  christian  charity  of  colonial 
Virginia  would  travel,  to  detect  and  punish  opinions, 
heretical  in  the  estimation  of  the  government,  but 
which  could  affect  the  eternal  interests  of  none  but 
the  heretic  himself. 

The  stinted  charities  of  young  Virginia  were 
without  excuse.  Her  first  settlers  did  not  fly  from 
Europe  for  conscience  sake ;  on  the  contrary,  they 
migrated  for  the  speedy  acquisition  of  great  wealth. 
Persecution  under  the  statutes  of  Elizabeth  for  non- 
conformity to  the  articles  of  faith,  and  manner  of 
worship,  which  they  established,  drove  the  Puriia-n 
pilgrims  in  their  ship  May-flower  from  Southampton 
to  Plymouth ;  and  causes  similar  to  those  propelled 
from  their  native  land,  the  first  settlers  of  Mary- 
land. 

You  know  that  I  am  a  native  of  Maryland.  Let  me 
then  candidly  confess,  that  after  looking  over  so  much 
of  this  letter  as  is  already  written,  I  feel  unwilling 
to  conclude  it  without  boasting  a  little.  You  must 
be  patient.  Do  you  inquire  of  what  I  boast?  You 
shall  hear,  or  to  speak  perhaps  more  properly,  you 
shall  read. 

The  government  of  Maryland  was  one  of  the  first 
organized  in  Christendom,  which  made  religious  to- 
leration a  corner-stone.  From  its  institution  until 
the  expulsion  of  the  unfortunate  James  II.  from  the 
British  throne,  indeed  until  his  Protestant  successor 
laid  violent  hands  upon  it,  the  principle  was  not  only 
recognised,  but  carried  out  in  practice,  that  "  error 
of  opinion  [in  religion}  may  be  tolerated  while  rea- 
4* 


42 

son  is  left  free  to  combat  it."  It  is  true,  that  during 
the  Protectorate,  prelacy  and  the  papacy  as  to  the 
provinces  were  interfered  with  by  the  legislation  of 
the  parent  country ;  but  I  have  seen  no  evidence, 
and  believe  that  none  exists,  that  the  enactment  re- 
ferred to,  was  enforced  in  Maryland.  It  is  also  true, 
that  the  laws  of  the  province  prescribed  punishments 
for  offences  against  public  morals,  and  so  ought  the 
criminal  code  of  every  christian  commonwealth ; 
but  until  the  sceptre  of  England  passed  from  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  to  the  Protestant  Prince  of  Orange, 
Maryland  was  as  tolerant  as  to  the  creeds  and  reli- 
gious observances  of  individuals,  as  is  at  this  time 
any  State  in  our  Federal  Union.  The  national  debt 
of  England,  and  her  interference  with  the  rights  of 
conscience  of  her  subjects  residing  in  this  then  pro- 
vince, were  commenced  at  tiie  same  time.  It  is 
said  that  the  good  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  with  a  view 
to  the  security  of  the  throne  of  King  William,  and  of 
a  Protestant  succession,  caused  the  imposition  of  the 
former  burthen  under  which  the  nation  still  groans  ; 
and  perhaps  his  anxiety  for  the  permanent  establish- 
ment of  his  own  church  throughout  the  British  do- 
minions, made  him  not  unfriendly  to  the  laying  on 
of  the  other,  from  which  we  were  at  length  freed 
by  the  revolutionary  sword* 


43 


LETTER   III, 


The  futility  of  attempting  to  regulate  the  failli  of  men  by  legal  enactments— 
The  purpose  of  Lord  Baltimore  that  his  government  should  be  tolerant,  prov- 
ed by  an  appeal  to  the  history  of  the  province  of  Maryland— The  first  settle- 
ment of  Maryland  made  by  about  two  hundred  emigrants  from  England, 
mostly  Catholics,  many  of  them  gentlemen   of  fortune,  A.  D.  1634.— The  form 

of  oath   required    by  the   lord    proprietary    of  his  governors Mr.  M'Mahon's 

Histoi-y  of  Maryland  referred  to,  and  one  of  his  opinions  quoted  with  approba- 
tion— The  preamble  of  an  enactment  of  the  provincial  legislature  of  Maryland, 
1649,  admired.— Jealousies  excited  against  the  second  lord  proprietary  under  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.,  and  requests  made  for  the  establishment  of  the  church  of 
England  in  Marjland. — In  1692  the  province  submitted  to  the  immediate  gov- 
ernment of  Wilham  III.— The  consequences  of  this  submission  unhappy  to 
religion. 


Reverend  Sir, — 

Governors  and  other  magistrates  can  compel  those 
under  their  authority  to  conform  their  words  and 
actions  to  the  written  law,  or  punish  them,  if  disobe- 
dient to  it:  but  how  rarely  has  the  exercise  of  so 
much  power  satisfied  them  !  How  frequently  and 
fruitlessly  have  they  attempted  to  visit  the  hearts  of 
others  for  the  purpose  of  modelling  their  religious 
faith  according  to  a  pattern  of  their  own  fashion- 
ing !  How  strange  it  is,  and  how  clearly  it  proves 
that  man  is  a  fallen  being  !  It  is  the  same  mischiev- 
ous principle  which  hurled  Satan,  like  lightning,  from 
heaven,  and  which  not  only  lives  but  reigns  in  al- 
most every  natural  heart. 

Do  not  misunderstand,  however,  my  opinion  in  re- 
lation to  religious  tests.     I  am,  upon  that  subject, 


44 

avowedly  unfashionable,  for  there  is  a  certain  class 
of  them  which  I  admire.  None  was  prescribed  in 
Maryland  whilst  governed  by  Roman  Catholics,  nor 
has  been  since  the  adoption  of  the  existing  con- 
stitution of  the  State,  which  I  do  not  entirely  ap- 
prove; and  as  it  is  "german  to  the  matter,"  I  will 
now  give  you  a  portion  of  their  history. 

The  fixed  purpose  of  the  first  lord  proprietary, 
that  his  govenmoent  should  be  "  one  which  tolerated 
all  christian  churches,  and  established  none,"  is  ap- 
parent from  the  history  of  the  province  from  the 
time  of  its  settlement.  That  settlement  was  made 
by  emigrants  from  England,  about  two  hundred  in 
number,  principally  Roman  Catholics,  many  of  whom 
are  said  to  have  been  gentlemen  of  family  and  for- 
tune, who  landed  on  the  27th  day  of  March,  1634, 
at  an  Indian  town,  which  their  Governor,  Leonard 
Calvert,  had  purchased  of  the  natives,  and  which 
was  situated  in  what  is  now  St.  Mary's  county. 
From  that  time  until  1649,  we  find  nothing  resem- 
bling a  religious  test,  in  the  government  or  laws  of 
the  province,  except  what  may  be  contained  in  the 
official  oath  prescribed  by  the  lord  proprietary  to 
his  governors,  each  of  whom  was  required  to  swear: 
"  That  he  would  not  by  himself,  or  another,  directly 
or  indirectly,  trouble,  molest,  or  discountenance, 
any  person  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  for, 
or  in  respect  of  religion ;  that  he  would  make  no 
difference  of  persons  in  conferring  offices,  favours  or 
rewards,  for  or  in  respect  of  religion,  but  merely  as 
they  should  be  found  faithful  and  wdl-deserving,  and 


45 

endued  with  moral  virtues  and  abilities  ;  that  his  aim 
should  be  public  unity,  and  that  if  any  person,  or 
officer,  should  molest  any  person  professing  to  be- 
lieve in  Jesus  Christ,  on  account  of  his  religion,  he 
would  protect  the  person  molested  and  punish  the 
offender."  Is  it  not  a  beautiful  compendium  of  the 
principles  which  should  direct  the  march  of  all  chris- 
tian governments?  Mr.  M'Mahon,  to  whose  His- 
tory of  Maryland  I  am  indebted  for  much  pleasure, 
and  for  many  facts  contained  in  this  letter,  calls  it 
*'  a  text  book  of  official  duty,"  and  I  subscribe  to  the 
truth  of  his  remark.  The  governors  of  the  province 
were  appointed  and  removed  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
lord  proprietary.  He  must  have  been  very  jealous 
for  religious  liberty,  or  he  would  not  have  imposed 
such  an  obligation  upon  persons  whose  appointment 
to,  and  continuance  in  office,  depended  entirely  upon 
his  own  will;  and  I  confess,  I  cannot  but  feel  asto- 
nished, that  he  should  have  prepared  such  a  form  of 
oath  to  be  taken  by  the  very  first  governor  of  the 
province,  and  that  governor  his  own  brother  !  In 
1649,  the  provincial  legislature  enacted  a  law, 
which  recognised  and  adopted  precisely  the  same 
principles,  and  which  continued  in  force,  until  the 
Protestant  revolution  hinted  at  in  my  last  letter.  I 
admire  its  preamble  more  than  that  to  the  act  of  as- 
sembly of  Virginia  upon  a  similar  subject,  which  was 
drawn  up  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  for  that  is  long  and  swol- 
len— the  other  consists  of  a  single  sentence  ; — indeed 
the  preamble  to  the  Maryland  law  would  not  dispa- 
rage the  legislation  of  any  country,  at  any  time.     It 


46 

is  in  these  words:  "Whereas  the  enforcing  of  the 
conscience  in  matters  of  religion  hath  frequently  fall- 
en out  to  be  of  dangerous  consequences  in  those 
commonwealths  where  it  hath  been  practised;  and 
for  the  more  quiet  and  peaceable  government  of  the 
province,  and  the  better  to  preserve  mutual  love  and 
unity  amongst  the  inhabitants,"  &c.  How  brief  it 
is,  and  yet  how  ample !  So  much  for  religious  tests 
in  Maryland  whilst  governed  by  Roman  Catholics. 

I  have  nearly  done  boasting  of  the  religious  free- 
dom of  provincial  Maryland,  for  w^e  now  approach 
the  termination  of  the  happiest  period  of  her  history. 

Scarcely  had  Charles  Calvert,  the  second  lord 
proprietary  succeeded  to  the  government  upon  the 
death  of  his  father,  before  he  was  annoyed,  and  his 
proprietary  rights  endangered  by  the  jealousy  of  the 
government  of  the  loathsome  Charles  II.  Repre- 
sentations were  made  to  the  king,  that  Lord  Balti- 
more in  his  appointments  to  office,  was  partial  to 
Catholics  ;  and  earnest  prayers  were  addressed  to 
the  proper  authorities,  that  the  church  of  England 
might  be  established  here.  Proof  of  the  fact  that 
a  majority  of  the  officers  in  the  province  were  Pro- 
testants, was  followed  by  no  result  but  a  royal  com- 
mand that  none  other  than  Protestants  should  be 
thereafter  appointed.  That  royal  jealousy  of  the 
government  of  Maryland  continued  throughout  the 
reigns  of  the  second  Charles,  and  James,  and  in  1692 
the  province  submitted  to  the  immediate  dominion  of 
the  then  new  government  of  William  III.  No  revo- 
lution more  entirely  unaccountable  ever  occurred  in 


47 

any  country,  than  that  one,  which  prostrated  the  pro- 
prietary government,  and  transferred  all  its  powers 
to  the  British  crown.  No  sufficient  cause  has  ever 
been  assigned  for  it.  The  people  of  England  had 
just  driven  James  II.  from  the  throne,  because  he 
was  a  Catholic — the  same  spirit  must  have  passed 
from  the  parent  country  to  the  province,  where  it  ef- 
fected a  similar  revolution.  The  unpleasant  conse- 
quences of  that  revolution  to  all  churches  but  one, 
will  be  partially  detailed  in  my  next  letter* 


48 


LETTER   IV. 


The  church  of  England  estahlis^ied  in  Maryland  by  a  law  of  the  provincial  legis- 
ture,  A.  D.  1692. — Supported  by  a  tax  to  be  paid  in  tobacco.— By  an  act  in 
1702,  dissentt-r-s  in  Maryland  allowed  the  benefit  of  a  statute  passed  in  the  first 
year  of  William's  reign.— Ronian  Catholics  and  Unitarians  excepted  from  this 
benefit.— The  doors  of  the  mei ting-houses  of  all  dissenters  must  however  be 
left"  unlocked,  unbarred  and  unbolted." — Their  teacliers  still  obnoxious  to  pe- 
nalties, unless  they  subscribed  certain  articles  mentioned  in  13  Eliz.  ch.  12 — 
The  act  of  1702,  a  legislative  finesse  to  establish  the  church  of  England  by 
stealth.— llie  test  act  passed  by  the  legislature  in  1716. — A  law  authorising  a 
tax  on  tobacco  to  be  assessed  by  the  justices  of  the  peace,  on  application  of  the 
vestrymen  and  cliurch-wardens,  was  enacted  1729.— The  case  of  John  Calvin 
and  Servetus  suggested,  and  the  consideration  of  it  promised  in  the  next 
letter. 


My  Dear  Sir,— 

With  your  permission,  I  will  now  glance  at  those 
laws  which  established  a  church  in  Maryland,  and 
endeavour  to  show  you  something  of  their  effects 
upon  all  classes  of  dissenters. 

By  an  act  of  the  provincial  legislature  (no  doubt 
drawn  up  in  England,)  approved  by  the  representa- 
tion of  their  Majesties  King  WilHam  and  Queen 
Mary,  June  5th,  1692,  the  church  of  England  was 
united  with  the  government,  and  became  the  estab- 
lished church  of  Maryland.  By  that  law,  provision 
was  made  for  the  division  of  the  province  into  pa- 
rishes, the  election  of  vestries,  the  building  and  re- 
pairing of  churches,  and  supporting  their  ministers; 
and  a  tax  of  forty  pounds  of  tobacco  "  per  poll,"  was 
imposed  on  every  "  taxable,"  to  meet  the  necessary 


49 

expenditure.  By  another  act,  passed  in  1702,  dis* 
senters  residing  in  Maryland  were  declared  to  be 
entitled  to  the  benefit  of  the  statutes  passed  in  the 
first  year  of  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary,  cona- 
monly  called  the  toleration  act.  The  toleration  act 
declares,  that  neither  of  the  statutes  of  Elizabeth, 
James,  or  Charles,  already  mentioned,  except  the  test 
acts,  shall  extend  to  any  dissenters,  other  than  pa- 
pists, and  such  as  deny  the  Trinity  ;  provided  such 
dissenters  will  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  su- 
premacy, or  similar  affirmations,  being  Quakers,  and 
subscribe  the  declaration  against  popery.  So  far  the 
statute  was  not  very  burthensome  upon  Protestant 
dissenters;  but  it  further  requires,  that  they  repair 
to  some  congregation  certified  to  and  registered  in 
the  court  of  the  bishop,  the  arch-deacon,  or  at  the 
county  sessions  ;*  and  not  only  so,  but  that  the  doors 
of  their  "  meeting-houses"  shall  be  "  unlocked,  un- 
barred, and  unbolted;"  and  disobedience  to  the  last 
requisition  exposed  every  one  in  the  house,  to  all  the 
pains  for  nonconformity,  prescribed  by  every  statute 
at  that  time  in  force  in  England.  How  much  they 
feared  conventicles !  But  all  this  was  not  only  re- 
quired of  dissenting  teachers  but  they  were  still  ob- 
noxious to  all  those  penal  laws,  unless  in  addition 
they  subscribed  the  articles  of  religion  mentioned  in 
13  Eliz.  ch.  12.     Those  articles  related  to  the  con- 

*  Instead  of  that  kind  of  registration,  the  act  of  1702  requir- 
ed that  the  several  places  used  for  relig-ious  worship  by  dissent- 
ing congregations,  should  be  certified  to  and  registered  in  the 
county  courts  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  toleration  act. 
5 


50 

fession  of  the  true  christian  faith,  and  the  doctrine  of 
the  sacraments,  with  exceptions  as  to  the  govern- 
ment and  power  of  the  church,  and  as  to  infant  bap- 
tism. 

It  is  a  fact  worth  some  attention,  that  after  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  had  seized  the  government  of  the 
province,  and  could  control  its  legislators,  their  first 
act  recognized  the  right  of  their  majesties  to  the 
crown  of  England  and  its  appurtenances,  and  the 
second  law^  passed  by  them,  established  the  church 
of  England  here,  which  was  followed  by  all  the  un- 
pleasant consequences  to  dissenters,  alluded  to  in  the 
preceding  paragraph.  Not  content  with  that,  the 
same  authority  in  1706  declared  in  round  terms,  that 
all  the  penal  statutes  mentioned  in  the  toleration  act 
were  in  force  in  Maryland.  The  act  of  1702  must 
have  been  a  piece  of  legislative  finesse; — it  attempt- 
ed the  establishment  of  the  church  of  England  by 
stealth,  in  all  the  terrors  which  environed  it.  The 
only  advantage  which  dissenters  could  derive  from 
the  toleration  act  was,  by  complying  with  its  terms, 
to  shield  themselves  and  their  social  worship  from 
the  vengeance  of  the  cruel  laws  already  referred  to; 
but  there  had  never  been  a  prosecution  in  Maryland 
under  either  of  those  statutes ;  in  fact,  they  had  not 
extended  to  the  province,  until  its  legislature  indi- 
rectly enacted  them  by  declaring  the  toleration  act 
in  force  here.  That  such  was  their  purpose  is  clearly 
proven  by  the  act  of  1706 ;  the  government  was  then 
a  little  older  and  could  venture  farther.  In  1716,  the 
legislature  passed  a  test  act,  which  excluded  every 


51 

one  who  would  not  connply  with  its  terms,  from  every 
office,  deputation,  or  trust  in  the  province.  The 
oath  prescribed  by  it,  very  properly  called  "  the  ab- 
horrency,"  was  highly  spiced  : — "  I,  A.  B.,  do  swear, 
that  I  do  from  my  heart,  abhor,  detest,  and  abjure  as 
impious  and  heretical,  that  damnable  doctrine  and 
position,"  &c.  By  a  law  passed  in  1729,  it  was  fur- 
ther provided:  "That  it  shall,  and  may  be  lawful 
for,  and  the  several  justices  of  the  several  county 
courts  within  this  })rovince  are  hereby  required  and 
directed,  on  application  to  them  made  by  the  vestry- 
men and  church-wardens  of  any  parish,  yearly  to 
assess  the  parishioners  of  such  parish,  any  quantity 
of  tobacco  not  exceeding  ten  per  poll,  on  the  taxa- 
ble inhabitants  thereof;  for  the  enlargement  or  re- 
pairs of  any  church,  heretofore  or  hereafter  to  be 
enlarged,  ov  for  any  other  charge  that  shall  hereafter 
he  judged  by  the  vestry  and  church-wardens  to  he  ne- 
cessary for  the  use  of  the  same  parish"  The  lines 
which  I  have  underscored,  certainly  gave  to  "  ves- 
trymen and  church-wardens"  dangerous  power.  From 
the  passage  of  that  law  until  the  Revolution,  there 
was  no  important  change  in  th<3  laws  relating  to  the 
established  church  or  to  those  dissenting  from  it. 

The  matter  about  which  I  have  been  writing,  has 
recalled  to  my  mind,  John  Calvin  and  Michael  Ser- 
vetus.  The  admirers  of  the  great  reformer  are  fre- 
quently taunted,  and  by  descendants  of  the  first  set- 
tlers of  Virginia  and  Maryland  too,  with  his  alleged 
agency  in  procuring  the  death  of  the  heretic.  I  shall 
endeavour  to  show  you  in  my  next  letter,  that  pra~ 


52 

vincial  Virginia  was  not  more  tolerant  than  Geneva; 
and  that  in  provincial  Maryland,  Servetus  might 
have  been  legally  and  m.ore  cruelly  punished  for  the 
offence  for  which  he  died.  You  will  excuse  the  di- 
gression ? 


53 


LETTER   V. 


Some  ultra  notions  on  toleration  con-ected.— The  writer's  views  on  the  subject 
stated.— Injustice  done  to  Calvin's  name  for  his  supposed  agency  in  procuring 
the  death  of  Servetus. — As  Strvetus's  punishment  was  then  approved  by  the 
churches  generally,  Calvin  could  be  justly  blamed,  only  for  not  having  that 
light  which  had  not  shone  upon  the  world  at  his  time. — 'Ihe  laws  of  colonial 
Virginia  and  Mar)  land  were  n^ore  cruel  than  those  under  which  Servetus  suf- 
fered.—Law  of  Virginia  passed  1659-60,  cited  and  commented  on.— A  law  of  Ma- 
ryland passed  1723,  and  remaining  in  force  unfil  1820  quoted,  and  its  effects 
explained. 


Reverend  and  Dear  Sir, — 

Before  I  undertake  the  redemption  of  the  pledge 
given  in  the  conclusion  of  my  last  letter,  I  will  copy 
a  very  old  law,  which  was  once  rigidly  enforced. 
"  And  he  that  blasphemeth  the  name  of  the  Lord,  he 
shall  surely  be  put  to  death,  and  all  the  congregation 
shall  certainly  stone  him  :  as  well  the  stranger,  as  he 
that  is  born  in  the  land,  when  he  blasphemeth  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  shall  be  put  to  death."  By  whom 
w^as  that  law  enacted?  But  I  may  be  told,  that  upon 
the  subject  of  civil  rights,  and  the  policy  of  human 
laws,  the  world  has  been  much  enlightened  within 
the  two  last  centuries : — it  is  true,  and  it  is  equally 
true,  that  many  have  gazed  upon  the  light  until  it 
"  has  blinded  their  eyes."  The  effects  of  that  blind- 
ness is  most  injurious  to  themselves  and  others ;  for 
it  induces  them  to  make  certain  extravagant  de- 
mands. When  they  speak  of  civil  and  religious  li- 
5* 


64 

berty,  they  mean,  that  every  man  has  a  right  "  to 
work  all  uncleanness  with  greediness,"  and  either  to 
apportion  the  respect  to  be  paid  to  God  and  his  law, 
or  to  trample  upon  the  authority  of  both.  In  my 
opinion,  there  are  very  few  crimes  for  the  commis- 
sion of  which,  human  authority  should  take  the  of- 
fender's life,  and  blasphemy  is  not  one  of  that  very 
limited  number ;  but  I  should  be  afraid  to  follow  the 
fashion  of  our  days,  by  maligning  a  law  the  coun- 
terpart of  one  made  by  God  himself  My  opinions 
upon  many  subjects  are  odd — you  know  that  they 
are  so.  Let  me  assure  you,  I  glory  in  the  fact;  for 
to  use  language  which  perhaps  I  ought  not  to  copy, 
"  my  mind  is  my  kingdom,"  and  I  must  reign  there 
or  occupy  no  throne  in  this  world. 

You  know,  that  for  uttering  horrible  blasphemies, 
Michael  Servetus  was  burnt;  and  that  gross  injus- 
tice on  account  of  it  has  been  done  to  the  character 
of  John  Calvin,  by  those  who  have  written  and 
spoken  centuries  after  his  death.  You  are  also 
aware  that  the  whole  christian  world,  the  Protestant 
churches  especially,  approved  the  proceeding,  and 
you  are  satisfied,  as  I  feel  persuaded,  that  if  Calvin 
had  made  and  enforced  the  law  under  which  the 
blasphemer  suffered,  he  ought  to  be  blamed  for  no- 
thing but  not  living  in  light  which  did  not  dawn 
upon  the  world  until  many  years  after  he  had  slept 
in  death.  To  frame  a  fair  issue,  I  am  now  willing 
to  admit,  that,  in  the  language  of  this  world,  Calvin 
might  have  prevented  the  death  of  Servetus,  and, 
that  it  was  because  of  his  advice  the  heretic  suffer- 


55 

ed ;  and  shall  notwithstanding  this  admission,  en- 
deavour to  prove,  that  the  legislation  of  colonial 
Virginia  and  Maryland  was  more  cruel  than  the 
very  law  under  which  Servetus  died.  For  this  pur- 
pose I  shall  not  travel  through  the  whole  codes  of 
those  provinces,  but  confine  myself  to  a  single  enact- 
ment of  each. 

I  shall  not  use  for  my  present  purpose  any  law  of 
Virginia,  designed  to  prevent  or  suppress  or  punish 
Puritanism,  lest  you  should  think  me  anxious  to  give 
to  the  persecutions  of  that  sect  too  prominent  a  place 
in  these  letters,  but  will  refer  to  a  portion  of  a  law 
selected  from  several  of  similar  character,  and  aimed 
especially  at  Quakers.*  As  early  as  1659-60,  the 
legislature  of  Virginia  passed  a  law  "  for  the  sup- 
pressing the  Quakers."  With  other  provisions  equally 
angry,  it  required  that  all  Quakers  in  Virginia  should 
be,  and  remain  imprisoned,  until  they  gave  security 
to  leave  the  colony  and  never  to  return;  that  for  re- 
turning they  should  be  punished  as  contemners  of 
the  laws  and  magistracy,  and  again  be  banished; 
that  for  returning  again,  they  should  "be  proceeded 
against  as  felons ;^^ — that  means,  should  be  put  to 
death.  As  to  the  charitable  feelings  which  made 
and  enforced  that  and  similar  laws,  we  may  form, 
I  think,  a  pretty  correct  estimate  from  the  following 
entry  fairly  copied  from  the  public  records  of  the 
colony.  "  On  the  12th  day  of  September,  1663, 
John  Porter,f  a  member  of  the  house  of  Burgesses, 

*  See  Appendix  A.  Act  VI. 
f  See  last  paragraph  of  Appendix  A. 


56 

was  expelled,  being  loving  to  the  Quakers,  his  oppo- 
sition to  baptism  of  infants,  and  his  refus'g  to  take 
the  oaths."  Now  institute  a  comparison  and  answer 
for  yourself  this  question:  Would  it  be  more  cruel 
to  burn  a  bold  blasphemer,  whose  death  was  de- 
manded by  the  whole  christian  church,  or  to  hang  a 
peaceable  orthodox  Quaker,  for  visiting  the  same 
country  three  times  ?  Let  not  Virginians  speak  con- 
temptuously of  Connecticut  blue  laws,  nor  reproach 
the  memory  of  John  Calvin  with  the  burning  of  Ser- 
vetus.  But  let  us  turn  to  Maryland  and  see  whether 
she  was  more  tolerant  than  her  sister  province. 

The  Protestant  successors  of  King  William  "  of 
glorious  memory,"  were  not  less  careful  to  preserve 
and  sustain  the  rights  of  the  established   church,  or' 
less  jealous  of  the   aggressions  of  heresy,  than  he 
had  been.     Accordingly,  by  an  act  of  the  legislature 
of  this  province  of  his  then  majesty  George  I.,  pass- 
ed in  1723,  it  was  provided:    That  a  person  con- 
victed "  of  wittingly,  maliciously  and  advisedly,  by 
writing  or  speaking,  blaspheming  or  cursing  God,  or 
of  denying  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son 
of  God,  or  denying  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  the  God- 
head of  any  of  the  Three  Persons,  or  the  Unity  of 
the  Godhead,  or  of  uttering  any  profane  words  con- 
cerning the  Godhead,"  should,  for  the  first  ofl^ence,. 
be  bored  through  the  tongue,  and  fined  £20  ;  or  if 
unable  to  pay  the  fine,  be  imprisoned  six  months;  for 
the  second  oflfence,  should  be  branded  in  the  fore- 
head with  the  letter  B.,  and  fined  £40;  or  if  too 
poor  to  pay  it,  be  imprisoned  twelve  months ;  and 


57 

for  the  third  offence  should  "  suffer  death  without  he- 
nefit  of  clergyy     That  law  was  not  repealed  until 
1820.     Servetus  suffered  death  in  1553;  but  had  he 
lived  in   Maryland,  and  been  convicted  of  his  blas- 
phemies, at  any  time  between  October  26th,  1723, 
and  January  11th,  1820,  nothing  but  natural  death, 
or  physical  force,  or  executive  clemency,  or  legisla- 
tive interference,   or  Almighty  power,  could  have 
saved  him  from   severer  pains  than  he  endured,  or 
from  death  itself     And  the  terrors  of  that  act  of  as- 
sembly were  not  restricted  to  those  alike  guilty  with 
Servetus.     Every  poor  Jew  or  deluded  Unitarian, 
who  avowed  his   creed  three  several  times,  or  any 
other  person,  who  uttered  any  profane  words  con- 
cerning the  Holy  Trinity  three  several  times,  was 
obnoxious  to  the   same  punishments.     Whether  an 
offence  charged  was  either  of  those  defined  by  the 
act  of  Assembly,  depended  entirely  upon   the  in- 
structions of  courts,  or  opinions  of  juries.    That  law 
was  not  enacted  in  Geneva  or  in  Rome; — on  the 
contrary,  it  emanated  from  a  government,  which, 
more  than  thirty  years  bef3re  that  time,  had  esta- 
blished the  Protestant  church  of  England  through- 
out its  entire  territory.  I  write  not  for  the  purpose  of 
complaining  of  the  act  of  1723;  but  we  ought  not 
to  be  taunted  with   the  burning  of  Servetus,  or  the 
intolerance  of  John  Calvin,  by  the  descendants  of 
those,  who  were  less  tolerant  than  that  great  and 
good  man,  although  they  lived  a  century  and  a  half 
after  he  had  done  with  time. 


58 


LETTER   VI 


The  statute  of  13  Charles  TI.  ch.  2.  excluding  all  except  communicants  of  the  church 
of  England  from  office,  not  enforced  in  Maryland — The  requisitions  of  the  test 
act  of  1716.— That  act  especially  hard  on  Koman  Catholics Tlie  winter's  opin- 
ion of  Queen  Anne  unfavourable.— The  governmeni  of  Mar)  land  given  in  1715 
by  the  crown  to  CharKs,  the  fourth  Lord  Baltimore,  and  third  lord  proprietaiy 
— a  Protestant. — All  the  oaths  extorted  by  acts  of  Parliament  could  be  taken  by 
Presbyterians— still  they  laboured  under  great  g^ievallc^■s.— In  Virginia  the  bur- 
dens laid  on  all  nonconformists  greater  than  in  Maryland — The  consequence 
was,  Presbyterians,  as  well  as  Episcopalians  settled  in  Maryland;  Episcopa- 
lians exclusively  in  Virginia. 


Dear  Sir, — 

You  will  perhaps  understand  what  follows  more 
distinctly,  by  reperusing,  before  you  proceed  farther, 
my  fourth  letter. 

Most  probably  the  act  of  1702,  and  certainly,  that 
of  1706,  placed  dissenters  in  Maryland  of  every 
name,  in  precisely  the  condition  of  their  brethren  in 
England;  but  I  do  not  believe  the  corporation  act, 
that  detestable  and  wicked  statute  of  13  Ch.  II.  ch.  2, 
which  excluded  from  all  offices  relating  to  the  go- 
vernment, every  person  who  had  not  received  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord^s  supper  according  to  the 
rites  of  the  church  of  England,  within  the  twelve- 
month which  preceded  his  election  or  appointment, 
was  at  any  time  enforced  in  the  province.  The  act 
of  1716  required,  "  that  all  persons  then  holding  any 
office  or  trust  within  this  province,  or  thereafter  to 
be  admitted  into  such  office  or  trust,  should  take  the 


59 

oaths  of  allegiance,  ahhorrency,  and  abjuration,  and 
should  subscribe  the  oath  of  abjuration,  and  make 
and  subscribe  a  declaration  of  belief,  that  there  is 
no  transubstantiation  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
supper :  which  declaration  was  called  "  the  test.^^  I 
withhold  explanations  in  this  place ;  and  they  will 
be  entirely  unnecessary,  if  you  will  refer  to  the  law 
itself,  a  copy  of  which  accompanied  my  fourth  letter. 
The  requirements  of  the  act  of  1716,  affected  Pro- 
testant dissenters  and  the  members  of  the  establish- 
ed church  alike ;  but  it  continued  the  war,  which 
had  been  waored  anjainst  the  civil  ris^hts  of  the  Ro- 
man  Catholics,  from  the  revolution  in  1689.  They 
certainly  shared  a  hard  fate.  The  province  had  been 
settled  by  them,  and  they  and  their  descendants,  had 
there  enjoyed  the  sweets  of  "  perfect  freedom"  in 
matters  of  religion.  From  the  time  of  the  enact- 
ment first  referred  to  in  the  preceding  paragraph, 
until  the  war  for  independence,  they  were  exposed 
to  all  the  oppressions,  pains  and  penalties  prescribed 
by  every  British  statute  to  prevent  popery,  passed  at 
any  time  after  the  death  of  the  bloody  Mary.  There 
are  many  of  those  laws,  and  they  are  indeed  cruel 
and  bloody.  I  am  aware  that  prosecutions  under 
them  were  suspended  at  one  time.  How  long?  Dur- 
ing the  pleasure  of  the  queen.  What  queen  ?  Anne, 
for  whose  memory  (the  opinion  of  good  Doctor 
"Watts  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,)  I  have  no 
respect.  Did  she  not  approve  the  expulsion  of  her 
father,  not  only  from  the  British  throne,  but  the  king- 
dom itself,  because  he  was  a  CatJiolic  ?    Did  she  not 


60 

desert  him,  and  act  in  concert  with  his  enemies  1 
Yes ; — and  it  was  her  abandoning  of  him  when  in 
his  deepest  distress,  which  almost  broke  his  heart, 
and  extorted  the  pathetic  exclamation,  "  God  help 
me !  my  own  children  have  forsaken  me."  James 
II.,  was  no  doubt  at  heart  a  tyrant,  and  a  tyrant  of 
the  worst  order, — for  he  was  a  bigoted  papist.  He 
desired  despotic  power;  and  he  would  have  wielded 
it  in  aid  of  a  superstition  which  has  shed  rivers  of  hu- 
man blood,  in  the  name  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  !  I  be- 
lieve he  acted  conscientiously  ;  and  although  he  had 
many  and  grievous  faults,  he  was  not  only  an  indul- 
gent but  a  fond  father,  and  Anne  was  an  unnatural 
daughter.  No  unnatural  daughter  can  become  an 
estimable  princess.  Her  treachery  to  some  of  the 
tenderest  affections  of  the  human  heart,  soon  receiv- 
ed the  reward  which  unquestionably  induced  it;  for 
the  very  same  act  of  the  convention  which  gave 
James's  government  to  Wilham  and  Mary,  made 
Anne  their  successor  in  case  her  sister  died  without 
issue.  Mr.  Hume  and  other  partial  historians,  may 
call  Anne  "  a  virtuous  child  ;"  but  I  insist,  that  when 
prosecutions  against  the  Catholics  in  Maryland  were 
suspended  during  Aer  pleasure,  they  were  left  at 
the  discretion  of  one  "  whose  tender  mercies  were 
cruel." 

The  government  of  the  province,  which  had  been 
wrested  from  Charles,  Lord  Baltimore  in  1689,  was, 
in  1715,  given  by  the  crown  to  his  son  Charles  who 
had  survived  him,  but  it  was  not  administered  in  his 
name,  until  the  succeeding  year.     He  was  the  fourth 


61 

Lord  Baltimore,  the  third  lord  proprietary,  and  a 
Protestant.     It  is  said  he  was  educated  in  the  Pro- 
testant faith  by  his  father,  because  of  the  persecu- 
tions he  had  himself  suffered  on  account  of  his  own. 
We  have  seen  that  Maryland,  during  the  first  se- 
venty years  of  her  existence,  neither  interfered  with 
any  man's   religious  creed,  nor  disabled  him  in  any 
way  on  account  of  it;  we  have  also  seen   some  of 
the   consequences  of  a  union  of  one  branch  of  the 
christian  church  with  her  government,  to  all  who  en- 
tertained another  faith,  or  preferred  a  worship  dif- 
fering in  its  manner  from  that  which  the  established 
church  prescribed.     All   the  oaths  and  declarations 
extorted  by  acts  of  parliament,  and  of  the  provin- 
cial legislature,  could  be  taken  by  Presbyterians  with 
a  good  conscience;  but  they  had  grievances  of  which 
they  loudly,  and  (I  think)  justly  complained.     To  be 
compelled  to  build  churches   in  which   they  never 
worshipped,   and   to  support  a  clergy  to  whose  in- 
structions they  thought  it  unlawful  to  listen ;  to  be 
required  to  make  a  public  record  of  the  names  of  the 
places  at  which  they  waited  upon  God  in  the  ordi- 
nances of  his  house,  that  they  might  be  constantly 
watched  by  the  jealous  minions  of  a  jealous  govern- 
ment,— and  that  those  satellites  of  power  might  not 
be  impeded  in  the  performance  of  their  ignoble  work, 
to  be  further  obliged,  and  under  severe  penalties,  to 
keep  the  doors  of  their  "  meeting  houses,  unlocked, 
unbarred  and  unbolted,"  were  indeed  "  heavy  bur- 
dens and  grievous  to  be  borne."     But  we  have  also 
seen,  that  on  the  south  side  of  that  "right  line," 
6 


62 

which  divides  the  eastern  shores  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia,  still  more  intolerable  burdens  were  impos- 
ed upon  all  nonconformists,  for  not  only  were  all  the 
statutes  in  relation  to  them,  passed  in  the  reigns  of 
Elizabeth,  James,  and  Charles,  enforced  there  with- 
out mercy,  but  Virginia  added  to  those  laws  many 
others  equally  or  more  oppressive.  A  dissenter  then, 
who  emigrated  from  Great  Britain,  and  especially 
one  whose  conscience  had  driven  him  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  established  church,  could  not  have  hesi- 
tated at  all,  on  which  side  of  the  Hne  to  pitch  his 
tent.  The  effects  were  such  as  might  have  been 
anticipated  :  the  eastern  shore  of  Virginia,  so  far  as 
I  am  advised,  was  settled  almost  exclusively  by 
Episcopalians — the  adjoining  territory  of  Maryland 
was  first  peopled  by  Presbyterians,  Episcopalians  and 
a  few  Quakers.  Presbyterians  were  scattered  over 
it  from  its  boundary  line  most  probably  to  the  Chop- 
tank  river ;  and  I  doubt  whether  any  other  Presby- 
terians were  affected  by  the  provisions  of  the  act  of 
1702. 

Until  the  Baptists  effected  a  settlement  in  Vir- 
ginia, there  was  no  organized  christian  church  from 
the  line  of  Maryland  to  Cape  Charles,  a  distance  of 
more  than  eighty  miles,  except  the  churches  estab- 
lished by  law.  There  was  a  house  at  Drummond 
Town,  the  county  town  of  Accomack,  in  which  a 
few  Presbyterians  formerly  worshipped.  I  know 
little  of  its .  history,  but  feel  satisfied  that  a  congre- 
gation was  never  organized  there.  That  house  of 
God  was  removed,  some  years  since,  from  the  vil- 


63 

lage,  and  converted  into  a  mill-house !  Northamp- 
ton county  extends  from  the  south  side  of  Accomack 
to  the  Capes,  and  has  a  population  of  seven  or  eight 
thousand.  I  have  never  heard  of  but  one  Presbyte- 
rian who  resided  within  its  limits;  and  he,  I  believe, 
became  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  church  a  short 
time  before  his  death,  which  occurred  a  few  years 
ago.  He  was  a  son  of  that  gentleman  of  Somerset, 
whose  conversion  from  Episcopacy  to  Presbyte- 
rianism,  is  noticed  by  Dr.  Miller,  in  his  life  of 
Rodgers. 


64 


LETTER   VIT. 


The  planting  of  a  christian  church  in  a  new  world,  an  important  work.— Francis 
MakeiTiie  unquestionably  the  first  Presbyterian  minister  that  \-isited  tliis  conti- 
nent,—He  was  a  native  of  Ireland— When  he  first  came,  not  known;  but  he 
was  permanently  settled  in  Accomack  county,  Virginia,  in  A.  D.  1690.— Account 
of  his  family,  residence,  &c. — Mr.  Makemie's  circumstances,  character,  labours, 
&c.— His  persecutions  in  New  York  by  Loid  Covnbury.— The  pamphlet  M'hich 
he  published  on  the  occasion. — His  library  extensive A  portion  of  it  bequeath- 
ed to  the  First  Presbyterian  churoh  in  Philadelphia,  &c. 


Rev.  and  Dear  Sir, — 

The  planting  of  a  christian  church  in  "  a  new 
world,"  is  a  great  work.  "  The  Lord  loveth  the 
gates  of  Zion  more  than  all  the  dwelHngs  of  Jacob. 
Glorious  things  are  spoken  of  thee,  O  city  of  God. 
Selah."  Civil  governments  can  torture  men's  bo- 
dies, and  after  that,  have  no  more  that  they  can  do; 
the  influences  of  the  church  will  be  felt  by  myriads 
of  immortal  spirits,  myriads  of  ages  after  this  ''great 
globe  and  all  which  it  inherits,"  shall  have  been 
burnt  up. 

The  Presbyterian  church  in  America  contains 
probably  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  members^ 
and  her  labours  of  love  girdle  the  earth  :  let  us  in- 
quire then  about  the  planting  of  this  vine,  "whose 
boughs  are  sent  out  unto  the  sea,  and  her  branches 
unto  the  rivers."  Great  efl^ects  from  little  causes,  or 
grand  results  from  small  beginnings,  afford  matter 


65 

for  pleasing  speculation,  whether  it  be  in  tracing  the 
terrors  of  an  earthquake  to  a  little  fissure  which  was 
in  the  earth  before  the  sun  was  rolled  together;  or 
in  passing  from  the  present  condition  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  in  America  to  a  period  of  time,  when 
but  a  single  man  proclaimed  her  scriptural  truth  and 
order  at  any  place  between  the  icy  "  recesses  of 
Baffin's  Bay  and  the  frozen  Serpent  of  the  South." 

Francis  Makemie  was  unquestionably  the  minister 
of  the   Presbyterian   church,  who   first  visited  this 
continent.    He  was  a  native  of  Ireland.    I  know  not 
when  he  reached  this  country,  or  at  what  places  he 
had  laboured;  but  he  had  settled  himself  permanent- 
ly in  Accomack  county,  Virginia,   anterior  to  the 
year  1690.*     His  residence  was  situated  on  a  creek 
called  jMatchatanck,  which  empties  into  the  Chesa- 
peake Bay  a  little  south  of  the  village  of  Onaucock. 
Miss  Naomi,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Mr.  VViUiam  An- 
dersonf  of  Accomack,  became  his  wife.     He  died 
in  1708,  no  doubt  in  the  summer  of  that  year,  leav- 
ing a  w^idow%  two  daughters  and  a  large  estate.    His 
daughters  were  named  Elizabeth  and  Anne.     Eliza- 
beth survived  her  father  but  a  short  time,  for  she  left 
this  world  in  the  same  year,J  young  and  unmarried, 
and  her  mother  soon  afterwards  followed  her.  Anne 
intermarried  with  a  gentleman  named  Holden,  and 
died  without  issue  near  the  end  of  the  year  1787,  or 
in  January,  1788.     There  flows  not  a  drop  of  Ma- 

*  See  Appendix  B.  f  See  Appendix  A. 

^  See  the  last  paragraph  of  Appendix  A. 
6* 


66 

kemie's  "  blood  in  the  veins  of  any  living  creature." 
Mrs.  Holden  was  a  wealthy  widow,  and  warmly  at- 
tached to  the  Presbyterian  church.  The  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Pitts's  creek  (about  which  you  w^ill  hear 
more  hereafter,)  although  not  at  all  related  to  her, 
was  one  of  her  executors  and  legatees,  and  the 
church  itself  is  still  aided  by  one  of  her  bequests.^* 

We  can  take  no  view  of  Mr.  Makemie,  which 
does  not  present  him  in  an  interesting  attitude.  He 
was  well  educated,  and  records  prove  that  he  was 
benevolent,  and  a  thorough-bred  Presbyterian.  He 
was  not  only  a  divine,  but  an  importing  merchant; 
and  the  frame  of  his  will,t  and  the  contents  of  his 
rich  library,  would  induce  us  to  think  that  he  had 
also  studied  law.  As  a  commercial  man  he  must 
have  been  skilful,  and  was  eminently  successful.  As 
a  citizen  he  assisted  in  enforcing  those  wholesome 
laws  so  important  to  every  community,  but  peculiarly 
so  to  one  in  its  infancy.  In  his  personal  transactions 
he  would  neither  do,  nor  suffer  wrong; — he  obeyed 
the  law  himself  and  wielded  it  against  its  transgres- 
sors. As  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  he  must  have 
possessed  the  spirit  of  those  who  visit  the  ends  of 
the  earth  that  they  may  preach  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ. 

Mr.  Makemie  did  not  emigrate  to  America,  that 
he  might  live  in  ease,  and  fatten  upon  luxuries  ex- 
torted from  an  unwiUing  people  by  an  established 
church,  or  to  exchange  a  rude  and  unlettered  society 

*  See  Appendix  B.  f  See  Appendix  A.  first  paragraph. 


67 

for  one  more  learned  and  refined  ; — on  the  contrary, 
his  faith  and  practice  might  and  did  expose  him  to 
persecution  and  pecuniary  loss,  and  he  abandoned 
the  elegancies  of  life  to  reside  with  those  who  had 
just  taken  possession  of  a  wilderness.  Instead  of 
"riotous  living"  he  endured  labour,  travelled  much, 
preached  often,  and  at  last  died  greatly  beloved. 

I  am  reminded  of  the  cruel  treatment  which  he 
received  in  New  York,  during  the  administration  of 
Lord  Cornbury.  Where  is  the  pamphlet  in  which 
he  published  the  particulars  ?  Was  there  not  one 
copy  of  it  in  the  library  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  J.  P. 
Wilson  ?  If  the  book  can  be  found,  it  certainly 
should  be  re-published. 

The  library  of  Mr.  Makemie,  (which  of  course  he 
must  have  imported)  has  been  referred  to.  I  do  not 
remember  the  number  of  its  volumes,  but  it  contain- 
ed hundreds.  By  his  will,  he  gave  one  hundred  and 
twenty  of  his  English  books  to  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ters; his  law-library  to  a  gentleman  named  Hamil- 
ton, and  the  remainder  of  his  library  to  "  Mr.  Jede- 
diah  Andrews,  minister  at  Philadelphia."  After  the 
death  of  Mr.  Andrews  or  his  removal  from  Philadel- 
phia, the  bequest  disposes  of  the  books  given  to  him 
as  follows : — I  give  and  bequeath  said  library  to  such 
minister  or  ministers  as  shall  succeed  him,  [Rev. 
Mr.  Andrews]  in  that  place  and  office,  and  to  such 
only  as  shall  be  of  the  Presbyterian  or  Independent 
persuasion,   and  none   else.*     He  further  directs : 

*  See  Mr.  Makemie*s  will.  Appendix  A. 


68 

"  That  as  soon  as  said  books  are  remitted  to  Phila- 
delphia, the  numbers  and  names  of  said  library  may 
be  put  upon  record,  to  be  preserved  there  as  a  con- 
stant library  for  the  use  of  foresaid  minister  or  mi- 
nisters successively  for  ever."  Is  the  first  church  in 
Philadelphia  in  possession  of  that  library  or  of  any 
part  of  it?  The  public  records  of  that  city  of  1708 
or  1709,  will  no  doubt  furnish  its  catalogue. 


LETTER   VIII 


Mr.  Makemie''s  travels  in  different  parts  of  this  continent,  and,  in  the  summer  of 
1704,  to  Europe.— About  the  time  of  his  return,  probably  with  him,  two  other 

Presbyterian  ministers    came  to  this    country A  more   particular  account  of 

Mr.  Makemie's  persecution  in  New  York,  by  Lord  Cornbury,  &c. 


Rev.  Sir, — 

In  my  last  letter,  I  alluded  to  Mr.  Makemie's  tra- 
vels. He  appears  not  only  to  have  been  much  at- 
tached to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Andrews  of  Philadelphia,  but 
familiar  w^ith  the  condition  of  the  people  of  his 
charge.  He  visited  New  York,  New  England,  and 
the  West  Indies,  how  frequently  1  know  not,  but  the 
persecution  which  he  suffered  from  the  bigotry  of 
the  universally  detested  Lord  Cornbury,  proved,  that 
he  used  those  journeys  for  the  good  of  souls.  He 
must  also  have  preached  in  the  island  of  Barbadoes,* 
for  he  there  complied  with  the  terms  of  the  tolera- 
tion act,  which  he  could  have  done  for  no  other  pur- 
pose, except  to  quahfy  himself  to  preach  as  a  dis- 
senting teacher. 

In  the  summer  of  1704,  he  went  to  Europe,  where 
it  seems  he  remained  until  the  autumn  of  the  suc- 
ceeding year.     I  say  he  went  to  Europe,t  because, 

*  See  Appendix  B.  2d  paragraph, 
f  See  Appendix  B.  3d  paragraph. 


70 

that  was  his  own  expression,  but  that  he  visited  the 
United  kingdom  there  can  be  little  doubt.  The  year 
before  he  had  contemplated  a  voyage  to  England, 
which  he  did  not  perform.  In  Ireland  he  had  near 
relations — two  brothers  and  two  sisters,*  if  no  more, 
and  from  the  length  of  his  stay  we  may  conclude, 
that  his  old  fashioned  principles  of  "  elective  affini- 
ty," or  some  other  consideration,  drew  him  to  Scot- 
land. That  visit  had,  no  doubt,  relation  in  part  to 
his  commercial  transactions,  but  from  the  character 
of  the  man,  we  must  be  persuaded,  that  the  interests 
of  the  infant  churches  which  he  had  left  behind  him, 
were  not  forgotten.  This  conjecture  has  strong  sup- 
port. Shortly  after  his  return  to  Virginia,  indeed  so 
shortly,  that  they  might  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  in 
the  same  vessel  that  brought  him,  two  Presbyterian 
clergymenf  from  Ireland,  had  arrived  and  were  la- 
bouring among  those  dissenters  who  were  noticed  in 
my  sixth  letter. 

Mr.  Makemie  was  a  bold  man  ;  and  it  would  seem 
that  he  was  willing  to  endure  all  things  for  the  elect's 
sake,  that  they  might  also  obtain  the  salvation  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus,  with  eternal  glory.  I  have  here- 
tofore alluded  to  the  persecution,  which  he  suffered 
in  New  York.  He  reached  that  city  in  the  month  of 
January,  1707.  From  the  season  of  the  year,  we 
conclude  certainly,  that  he  made  the  journey  by  land, 
and  not  coastwise  ;  and  from  the  missionary  spirit 

*  See  Appendix  B.,  the  part  of  his  will  which  relates  to  his 
kindred  in  Ireland, 
f  See  Appendix  D.  * 


71 

of  the  man,  there  is  no  doubt,  he  preached  the  truth 
all  along  the  way.  He  was  accompanied  by  the  Rev. 
John  Hampton,  afterwards  the  settled  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Snowhill.  There  were  at  that  time,  in 
New  York,  Dutch  and  French  Calvinists,  Episcopa- 
lians, and  Irish  Presbyterians.  The  Presbyterians 
had  neither  meetino^-house  nor  minister.  Messrs. 
Makemie  and  Hampton  had,  with  the  consent  of  the 
congregation,  or  their  representatives,  preached  cer- 
tainly once,  perhaps  many  times, in  the  Dutch  church; 
but  on  a  particular  Sabbath-day,  Mr.  Makemie 
preached  in  a  private  house  with  open  doors,*  and 
Mr.  Hampton  preached  at  New  Town.  By  the  order 
of  the  governor,  they  were  both  arrested  the  same 
week  at  New  Town,  and  carried  before  his  lordship, 
who  reprimanded  them  severely,  but  they  withstood 
the  ferocity  of  his  temper  and  manner  with  undaunt- 
ed firmness.  The  charge  preferred  against  them  was, 
that  they  had  violated  those  British  statutes  which 
relate  to  dissenters  and  dissenting  teachers.  Mr. 
Makemie  replied  with  great  power  to  the  arguments 
of  the  attorney  general,  and  proved  conclusively, 
that  those  obnoxious  laws  were  not  intended  for  that 
province,  and  therefore  did  not  extend  to  it.  His 
lordship  replied,  that  they  had  nevertheless  commit- 
ted an  offence  against  his  instructions,  and  accord- 
ingly committed  them  to  prison  to  await  the  return 

*  I  have  seen  it  stated  somewhere,  that  he  also  baptized  a  child. 
I  have  no  evidence  of  the  fact.  It  may  have  been  mentioned  in 
the  pamphlet  referred  to  in  my  last  letter;  but  it  was  not  noticed 
in  the  prosecution  afterwards  instituted  ag-ainst  him. 


72 

of  the  chief  justice  from  New  Jersey.     When  they 
were  arraigned  before  the  court,  the  governor  be- 
coming convinced  that  the  indictments  found  could 
not  be  sustained,  changed  entirely  the  character  of 
the  offence  charged.     They  gave  bail  for  their  ap- 
pearance at  the  next  term  of  the  supreme  court,  and 
were  discharged  after  an  imprisonment  of  almost 
seven  weeks  duration.     The  grand  jury  which  next 
acted  upon  the  case,  found  no  bill  against  Mr.  Hamp- 
ton; but  on  the  6th  day  of  June  in  the  same  year, 
Mr.  Makemie  was  tried  upon  an  indictment,  the  sub- 
stance of  which  was  in  the  following  words :  "  That 
Francis  Makemie  pretending  himself  to  be  a  Protes- 
tant dissenting  minister,  contemning  and  endeavour- 
ino-  to  subvert  the  queen's  ecclesiastical  supremacy, 
unlawfully  preached,  without  the  governor's  license 
first  obtained,  in  derogation  of  the  royal  authority 
and  prerogative  ;  and  that  he   used  other  ceremo- 
nies and  rites  than  those  contained  in  the  common 
prayer-book;  and  lastly,  that  he  being  unqualified  to 
preach,  did  preach  at  an  illegal  conventicle."     The 
two  last  charges  were  said  to  be   contrary  to  the 
forms  of  the  statutes.    The  people  took  deep  interest 
in  the  trial;  for  very  precious  rights  were  involved, 
and  the   most  learned  and  eminent  members  of  the 
provincial  bar  were  engaged  in  it.     The  court  fa- 
voured the  prosecution,  but  the  jury  returned  a  ver- 
dict of  "  not  guilty."     Notwithstanding  his  acquittal, 
his  bail  was  not   discharged  until  he  had  paid  the 
whole  cost  of  the  prosecution,  amounting  to  the  sum 
of  eighty-three  'pounds  seven  shillings  and  sixpence  I 


73 

More  grievous  oppression,  or  more  unrighteous  ex- 
tortion, never  disgraced  the  government  of  any  ty- 
rant. 

The  deep  injuries  inflicted  on  Mr.  Makemie,  had  a 
powerful  effect  upon  the  people.  They  saw  for  the 
first  time,  their  chief  magistrate  in  his  true  charac- 
ter; they  saw  that  invaluable  rights,  the  rights  of 
conscience,  were  in  danger  ;  and  a  legislative  assem- 
bly, convened  on  the  8th  November,  1708,  spoke  to 
the  offender  in  language  not  to  be  misunderstood. 
In  one  of  a  series  of  resolutions,  they  denounced  the 
extortion  practised  upon  Mr.  Makemie  in  the  follow- 
ing words :  "  Resolved,  that  the  compelling  any  man 
upon  trial  by  a  jury  or  otherwise,  to  pay  any  fees  for 
his  prosecution,  or  any  thing  wdiatsoever,  unless  the 
fees  of  the  officers  whom  he  employs  for  his  neces- 
sary defence,  is  a  great  grievance  and  contrary  to 
justice." 

That  a  second  indictment  was  not  found  against 
Mr.  Hampton,  is  to  me  entirely  unaccountable  :  from 
the  evidence  before  the  grand  jurors,  he  and  Mr. 
Makemie  must  have  been  in  pari  delicto. 

That  he  was  deeply  injured,  indeed  greatly  op- 
pressed, by  the  prosecution  and  its  consequences, 
Mr.  Makemie  was  entirely  aware ;  and  I  presume  his 
object  in  publishing  the  pamphlet  about  which  some 
questions  were  asked  in  a  former  letter,  was  to  at- 
tract public  attention  to  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  to 
advertise  the  inhabitants  of  the  provinces,  that  ty- 
ranny might  exist  in  a  provincial  governor ;  and  that 
the  rights  of  conscience  even  on  the  western  side  of 
7 


74 

the  Atlantic,  might  be  trampled  upon  by  one  whose 
power  was  but  "  the  accident  of  an  accident."  The 
effect  of  that  publication  upon  public  opinion  we 
cannot  ascertain,  or  whether  it  provoked  the  ener- 
getic but  dignified  C-xpression  of  displeasure  from  the 
popular  assembly  of  New  York,  already  quoted,  we 
must  remain  uncertain.  It  came  too  late,  however, 
to  sooth  the  wounded  feelings  of  the  sufl^erer,  or  to 
satisfy  him  that  the  citizens  of  his  adopted  country 
would  be  free :  he  had  already  gone  "  where  the 
wicked  cease  from  troubhng  and  the  weary  are  at 
rest." 


75 


LETTER   IX. 


Hemarks  concerning  Mr.  Makemie  continueil. — His  zeal  for  the  church.— Receiv- 
ed no  compensation  for  his  labours,  but  on  the  contrary  supplied  the  wants  of 
his  infant  congregations  out  of  his  own  funds.— The  situation  of  the  Kehobetli 
church  shown.— Built  on  Mr.  Makemie's  own  land.— Provided  for  by  his  will. — 
His  zeal  for  the  church,  as  Avell  as  his  desii'e  for  the  religious  education  of  his 
children  proved  by  his  will. 


Rev.  Sir, — 

I  have  not  yet  done  with  Francis  Makemie,  and 
am  more  unwilling  to  quit  his  name,  because  so  few 
of  the  members  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  the 
United  States,  know  any  thing  about  him  ;  and  be- 
cause my  knowledge  of  the  man,  his  character,  his 
conduct,  his  labours  of  love,  will  soon  be  consigned 
to  a  house,  in  which  there  is  neither  available  know- 
ledge nor  wisdom. 

Instead  of  living  upon  the  church,  or  receiving  a 
revenue  from  the  contribution  of  its  members,  he 
supplied  the  temporal  wants  of  the  church  from  his 
own  resources :  indeed  the  whole  church  was  dear 
to  him.  For  the  first  church  in  Philadelphia,  and 
for  its  pastor,  he  discovered  a  deep  interest,  as  ap- 
pears from  my  seventh  letter,  but  at  that  time,  just 
before  his  death,  the  church  at  Rehobeth  must  have 
been  his  darling.  As  I  shall  be  obliged  to  speak  fre- 
quently of  Rehobeth  in  what  follows,  to  save  trouble 


76 

hereafter,  let  me  say  now,  that  the  place  is  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Pocomoke  river,  about  twenty-five 
miles  from  Snowhill.  On  the  22d  August,  1666,  So- 
merset county  was  erected  on  paper,  by  order  of  the 
provincial  governor,  and  embraced  the  whole  eastern 
shore  of  Maryland  lying  between  the  Nanticoke 
river  and  the  line  which  divides  Maryland  from  Vir- 
ginia. By  an  act  of  assembly,  passed  in  1742,  Wor- 
cester county  was  carved  out  of  it,  and  includes  the 
southern  portion  of  its  territory  as  represented  on 
our  maps.  For  a  similar  reason,  it  is  necessary  to 
say  something  of  the  location  of  Somerset  county, 
within  the  bounds  of  which  Rehobeth  is  situated;  for 
Worcester  county  did  not  exist  by  that  name,  until 
after  the  occurrence  of  most  of  the  events  noticed 
in  these  letters.  You  will  understand  by  Somerset 
county,  the  territory  now  included  in  both,  unless  ad- 
ditional terms  of  description  be  annexed.  Be  pleas- 
ed to  take  some  pains  to  understand  this  paragraph, 
as  I  shall  insist  hereafter,  that  Somerset  county  thus 
defined,  is  the  '^ faderland"  of  American  Presbyte- 
rianism. 

I  have  already  referred  to  Mr.  Makemie's  disinte- 
rested labours,  his  benevolence,  his  strong  Presbyte- 
rian predilections,  and  that  instead  of  deriving  tem- 
poral advantage  from  the  church,  he  was  in  temporal 
things,  as  well  as  spiritual,  the  church's  benefactor. 
The  meeting-house  at  Rehobeth,  in  which  worship- 
ped the  congregation  that  appears  to  have  been  the 
Benjamin  of  his  latter  days,  was  erected  upon  his 
own  land,  and  provision  is  made  by  his  will  for  the 


77 

conveyance  of  the  lot  of  ground  in  perpetuity  to  be 
used  in  the  same  way. 

To  any  one  who  is  not  hardened  through  the  de- 
ceitfulness  of  sin,  the  preparation  of  a  last  will  and 
testament,  is  as  solemn  a  business  transaction  as  can 
be  undertaken.  The  ruling  passion  is  generally  strong 
in  death,  as  I  have  frequently  professionally  witness- 
ed. A  will,  in  many  instances,  shows  with  certainty, 
the  habit  of  the  testator's  mind,  and  the  tone  of  his 
feelings.  The  only  inducement  to  make  a  will,  is  a 
solicitude  about  some  person  or  thing  that  will  pro- 
bably survive  the  testator;  and  a  christian  can  never 
make  a  testamentary  disposition  of  his  estate,  with- 
out reflecting,  that  the  moment  the  instrument  pre- 
pared for  the  purpose  becomes  operative,  he  will 
have  passed  into  the  eternal  world,  and  that  his  con- 
dition will  be  unalterably  fixed. 

From  Mr.  Makemie's  will,  it  appears  that  he  was 
anxious  about  nothing  but  his  wife  and  his  children, 
and  the  church.  I  have  said  enough  already  to  ex- 
hibit his  attachment  to  the  church  to  which  he  be- 
longed, and  in  which  he  ministered;  but  the  solemn 
manner  in  which  he  provides  for  the  religious  edu- 
cation of  his  daughters,  deserves  some  notice.  They 
are  intrusted  with  perfect  confidence  to  the  guar- 
dianship of  his  wife,  but  in  case  of  her  death,  during 
their  minority,  the  Honourable  Colonel  Francis  Jen- 
kins and  Mary  his  wife,  of  Somerset  county,  in  Ma- 
ryland, are  constituted  their  guardians  until  maturity 
or  marriage,  and  all  persons  are  charged  in  the  pre- 
sence of  "Almighty  and  Omniscient  God"  to  give 
7* 


78 

and  allow  them  a  "  sober,  virtuous,  and  religious  edu- 
cation, either  here  or  elsewhere,  as  in  Britain,  New 
England  or  Philadelphia."*  Colonel  Jenkins  was  one 
of  the  oldest  Presbyterians  in  Maryland,  and  the 
laws  of  the  state  prove,  that  there  were  few  men,  if 
any,  of  higher  standing  on  the  Eastern  Shore.  Pub- 
lic documents  prove,  that  before  1696,  he  was  enti- 
tled to  the  adjuncts  which  Mr.  Makemie  prefixed  to 
his  name.  My  purpose  in  writing  this  paragraph,  is 
to  show  that  Mr.  Makemie's  dying  wish  was,  that 
the  Presbyterian  church  might  prosper,  and,  that  his 
children  should  have  a  sober,  virtuous  and  religious 
education,  under  the  direction  of  their  Presbyterian 
mother,  or  of  his  Presbyterian  friends. 

*  See  in  Appendix  B.  the  part  of  his  will  which  relates  to  the 
education  oT  his  daughters. 


79 


LETTER  X. 


The  question  when  were  Presbytei-ian  churches  first  organized  in  Somerset  coun- 
ty, Mai-ylanil,  brought  under  consideration. 


Rev.  SiR^ — 

I  now  approach  a  question  of  much  interest  in  the 
history  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  America. — At 
what  time  were  Presbyterian  churches  organized  in 
•Somerset  county? 

For  a  long  time  after  the  settlement  of  Virginia, 
dissenters  were  not  permitted  to  preach  within  her 
limits  on  any  terms;  and  although  Mr.  Makemie  had 
become  domiciliated  there  anterior  to  the  year  1690, 
yet  he  was  not  authorized  to  preach  there  until  Octo- 
ber 15,  1G99.  He  must  have  been  ordained  in  Eu- 
rope ;  I  believe  by  the  Presbytery  of  Donegal,  Ire- 
land. Reflect  upon  his  character  and  answer  the 
question  for  yourself: — would  such  a  minister,  and 
such  a  man  remain  quietly  at  home  and  kept  silence 
for  ten,  or  twenty,  or  for  aught  we  know,  for  thirty 
years,  by  laws  more  cruel  than  those  which  he  had 
left  behind  him  ?  Tradition,  common  sense,  and  au- 
thenticated facts,  seal  the  conclusion,  that  it  is  im- 
possible he  could  have  so  spent  so  many  years  of  his 
life.  But  where  did  he  execute  the  duties  of  the  of- 
fice, into  wMch  he  was  initiated  by  the  laying  on  of 


80 

hands  of  the  presbytery  ?  The  answer  is  at  hand  : 
By  travelling  a  few  miles  over  as  level  a  country  as 
the  sun  shines  upon,  he  was  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
laws  and  constituted  authorities  of  Virginia — he  was 
in  Somerset  county,  in  Maryland,  where  there  were 
many  Presbyterians,  and  where  he  could  do  his  Mas- 
ter's work,  without  hinderance  or  molestation  from 
any  quarter.  Do  you  ask  me  how  I  ascertain  that 
there  were  Presbyterians  in  Somerset  before  the  year 
1699  ?  Because  of  some  of  them  I  know  the  names, 
and  the  names  of  their  children,  grand  children,  and 
great  grand  children  ;  and  because  public  documents 
show  where  they  lived,  and  when  they  died  ;  and  evi- 
dence which  would  be  admissible  in  a  court  of  law, 
fixes  the  name  of  the  religious  persuasion  to  which 
they  were  attached.  An  ancestor  of  my  own,  who 
had  probably  affixed  his  name  to  the  solemn  league 
and  covenant,  was  a  citizen  of  Somerset  county 
many  years  before  the  period  mentioned  above,  un- 
less public  and  private  records  speak  falsehood.  My 
own  conviction  is,  that  Mr.  Makemie  resided  in  So- 
merset county,  and  organized  churches  there  pre- 
viously to  his  settlement  in  Accomack.  A  town  to 
be  called  Snowhill,  was  established  in  Somerset,  now 
Worcester  county,  by  an  act  of  the  provincial  legis- 
lature, passed  in  the  year  1684,  and  I  believe,  that 
the  Presbyterian  church  in  that  place,  is  nearly,  or 
quite  as  old  as  the  town.  Snowhill  was  settled  by 
English  Episcopalians,  and  Scotch  and  Irish  Presby- 
terians, and  it  is  certain  that  persons  resided  there  at 
the  time,  or  soon  after  the  time,  in  which  the  town 


81 

was  laid  out,  who  were  afterwards  members  of  the 
Presbyterian  church.  My  ancestor,  to  whom  I  have 
already  alluded,  was  a  ruling  elder  in  that  church — 
he  was  the  father  of  five  children,  all  of  them  na- 
tives of  Snowhill  or  its  neighbourhood,  the  youngest 
of  whom  was  born  in  April,  1698.  I  am  persuaded 
that  he  lived  in  Maryland  the  last  twenty  years  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Do  you  ask  for  the  evi- 
dence of  any  connexion  between  that  church  and 
Mr.  Makemie?  I  doubt  whether  the  memory  of  any 
gospel  minister  was  ever  held  in  higher  honour  by 
an  American  congregation,  than  was  that  of  Mr. 
Makemie  by  the  people  of  Snowhill.  His  praises 
have  not  yet  left  the  church,  although  he  has  rested 
from  his  labours  almost  a  hundred  and  thirty  years. 
Tradition  has  made  a  record  of  his  labours  and  many 
excellencies  of  character  ;  one  generation  has  utter- 
ed his  praises  in  the  ears  of  its  successor,  and  you 
may  even  yet,  hear  their  echo.  Parents  made  his  sur- 
name, the  christian  name  of  their  children,  until  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Snowhill,  it  has  become  a  com- 
mon one.  The  church  has  had  no  pastor  from  1708 
until  this  time,  whose  name  it  so  profoundly  vene- 
rates. Information  derived  from  aged  lips,  which  it 
was  once  my  pleasure  to  listen  to,  and  my  duty  to 
honour,  produces  peculiar  feelings  whenever  I  hear 
the  name  of  Francis  Makemie.  Further  proof  of 
Mr.  Makemie's  connexion  with  the  church  in  Snow- 
hill, and  indeed  with  the  other  churches  in  Somerset, 
is  derived  from  the  fact,  that  those  churches  were 
organized  when  there  was  no  other  Presbyterian  mi- 


82 

nister  on  the  continent,  to  effect  their  organization. 
There  is  record  evidence  of  the  fact,  that  there  were 
five  church  edifices  and  as  many  organized  Presby- 
terian congregations  in  Somerset  county,  on  the  13th 
day  of  M^rch,  1705,*  and  neither  popular  tradition, 
nor  pubUc  nor  private  documents,  know  any  thing  of 
any  Presbyterian  clergyman  within  the  bounds  of 
the  existing  Presbytery  of  Lewes  at  that  time,  ex- 
cept Francis  Makemie.  The  building  of  a  country 
church  now-,  where  population  is  comparatively 
dense,  and  money  abundant,  is  a  difficult  work ;  how 
then  can  we  account  for  the  existence  of  five  churches 
and  congregations  within  the  limits  of  Somerset 
county,  on  the  day  mentioned  above,  but  by  the  sup- 
position, that  the  w^ord  had  been  preached  to  the 
people  for  years  previously?  The  country  was  newly 
settled,  the  population  sparse  and  money  scarce,  in- 
deed tobacco  was  the  currency — the  legal  circulat- 
ing medium.f  Can  any  one  believe,  that  the  gather- 
ing together  of  five  congregations,  and  the  building 
of  five  houses  of  worship,  was  the  work  of  a  few 
months,  or  even  of  a  single  year?  And  that  those 
emigrants  so  straitened,  erected  those  churches  with- 

*  See  Appendix  D,  Extract  5,  and  Makemie's  will,  Appen- 
dix A. 

■f  This  reminds  me  of  an  en*or  into  which  some  one  has  fallen, 
I  think  it  is  the  editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate  or  some  one  of 
his  correspondents.  He  speaks  in  commendatory  terms  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Hampton,  for  agreeing-  to  receive  his  salary  in  tobacco. 
The  fact  is,  in  Maryland  all  public  dues  were  taxed  in  tobac- 
co ;  and  all  public  bonds  made  payable  in  that  commodity  until 
1810. 


83 

out  ever  having  had,  or  any  prospect  of  having  the 
ordinances  of  tlie  gospel?  Their  faith  must  have 
been  strong  if  they  did  so,  but  not  so  strong  as  his, 
who  gives  credit  to  the  supposition.  If  Mr.  Ma- 
kemie  did  not  organize  those  churches  and  preach  to 
them,  who  did?  He  had  been  the  only  minister  of 
that  religious  persuasion  on  the  continent,  and  you 
saw  in  my  eighth  letter,  that  from  some  time  in  the 
summer  of  1704  until  the  autumn  of  1705,  he  had 
been  in  Europe. 

I  conclude  this  letter  with  remarking,  that  the 
churches  in  Somerset  were  planted  and  watered  by 
ministers  from  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Ireland, 
although  the  church  of  Scotland  has  always  been 
considered  the  mother  of  us  all ;  and,  that  the  Pres- 
byterian church  in  America,  owes  a  debt  to  the  me- 
mory of  Francis  Makemie,  which  has  never  been 
discharged.  Were  I  to  endow  a  scholarship  in  one 
of  our  theological  seminaries,  it  would  certainly  be 
called  "  The  Francis  Makemie  scholarship." 


84 


LETTER   XI. 

Reflections. — Presbyterian  churches  organized  in  Somerset  county  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century.— The  claims  of  Philadelphia  to  the  first 
Presbj-terian  clnu-ch  organized  in  the  United  States,  not  well  founded. 

Rev.  Sir, — 

After  the  interval  of  more  than  a  month,  a  part  of 
which  has  been  occupied  in  the  discharge  of  knov^^n 
duties,  another  part  in  drinking  those  salutary  bitter- 
nesses, which  medicate  the  cup  of  human  life,  and 
much  of  it,  I  fear,  in  sinning  against  God,  I  resume 
my  pen.  Whilst  we  continue  in  the  church  below, 
we  must  fight  or  die ;  and  even  in  a  spiritual  sense, 
a  man's  worst  foes  are  those  which  belong  to  his 
own  house.  We  have  a  horrible  notion  of  those 
countries  whose  caverns,  and  the  fastnesses  of  whose 
mountains,  and  the  clefts  of  whose  rocks,  are  infest- 
ed by  blood-spilling  robbers,  but  our  own  hearts  re- 
semble them,  and  in  their  relations  to  the  perfect 
will  of  God,  are  even  worse  than  those  very  coun- 
tries. When  we  first  saw  the  light,  or  felt  the  sun, 
we  were  cherishing  in  embryo  the  seeds  of  moral 

** diseases,  of  massacre,  and  poison. 


Famine  and  war," 

'*  plague  and  pestilence." 

Who  made  thee  to  differ  from  another  1     In  the  heart 
of  an  assassin  the  noxious  seed  not  only  germinates. 


85 

but  buds,  blossoms,  and  bears  (in  its  kind)  perfect 
fruit.  The  hot  beds  in  our  own  bosoms  are  equally 
prolific,  and  are  supplied  with  seeds  of  precisely  the 
same  class:  why  the  difference  between  us  and 
them  ? 

**  'Twas  all  of  thy  grace  we  were  brought  to  obey, 

While  others  were  suffered  to  g-o 
The  road,  which  by  nature  we  chose  as  our  way. 

Which  leads  to  the  regions  of  wo." 

We  must  endure  hardness  as  good  soldiers  of  Je- 
sus Christ,  but  the  citadel  of  a  christian  is  the  house 
of  God.  His  people  in  all  ages  have  preferred  the 
church  above  their  chief  joy,  and  I  am  fully  per- 
suaded that  the  more  carefully  we  attend  upon  her 
ordinances,  the  more  decisive  will  be  our  victories 
over  sin,  and  the  larger  the  communications  to  us  of 
divine  love.  The  church  of  the  living  God,  the  pil- 
lar and  the  ground  of  the  truth  !  What  a  glory  en- 
circles every 


•'  little  spot  enclosed  by  grace 

Out  of  the  world's  wide  wilderness." 

I  am  prone  to  wander  in  another  sense,  besides  that 
intended  by  the  hymn  from  which  the  expression  is 
borrowed,  but  to  misuse,  perhaps  to  pervert,  a  frao-. 
ment  of  a  kindred  line,  am 


"  now  made  willing  to  return," 


to  the  subject  of  these  letters. 

From  the  considerations  suggested  by  my  last  let- 
ter, I  assume  in  this,  that  there   were  Presbyterian 
churches  organized  in  Somerset  county,  before  the 
8 


86 

commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Can  yoa 
doubt  it?  I  can  not.  I  further  assume,  that  Francis 
Makemie  organized  those  churches,  and  preached  to 
ihem.  Upon  any  other  terms  we  must  do  injustice 
to  his  memory,  for  he  was  unquestionably  a  zealous 
minister  of  the  gospel,  and  a  man  of  missionary  spi- 
rit. To  believe  that  the  cruel  laws  of  colonial  Vir- 
ginia made  him  a  "dumb  dog"  for  ten  or  twenty  or 
thirty  years  of  his  life,  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
comparatively  tolerant  Maryland,  where  there  were 
persons  who  entertained  his  own  faith,  both  as  to 
doctrine  and  discipline,  would  be  absurd.  Who  can 
suppose,  that  in  Somerset  county,  then  newly  settled, 
abounding  in  neither  population  ot  wealth,  five  Pres- 
byterian churches  were  erected  in  as  many  years  ? 
Or  who  can  believe,  that  so  situated  without  having 
ever  enjoyed  in  America  the  ordinances  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  where  there  was  no  preacher  of  their  own 
persuasion  on  the  continent  to  administer  them,  the 
people  would  have  erected  so  many  houses  for  wor- 
ship? No  one,  certainly.  At  the  time  when  records 
prove  the  existence  of  those  five  congregations  in 
Somerset,  there  was  but  one  brick  church  in  Mary- 
land, and  that  was  in  the  city  of  Annapolis.  This 
proves,  that  there  was  difficulty  in  procuring  the 
erection  of  church  edifices  in  the  province,  and  it  is 
to  be  remembered,  that  most  of  the  other  parts  of 
Maryland  were  settled  before  Somerset,  and  there  is 
no  body  of  land  of  the  same  size  in  the  State,  the 
soil  of  which  was,  and  is,  so  poor.  An  intelligent 
friend,  in  a  letter  to  me  upon  this  subject,  uses  the 


87 

followino-  language  : — "  Forasmuch  as  the  license 
given  by  the  governor  to  Messrs.  Hampton  and 
McNish,*  to  preach  in  four  distinct  meeting-houses, 
bears  date  March,  1705,  is  not  the  conclusion  strong 
and  irresistible,  that  the  gospel  had  been  preached 
by  ministers  of  our  denomination  for  several  years 
before  that  date  ?  It  is  well  known,  that  anterior  to 
that  time,  this  part  of  the  country  was  but  thinly  set- 
tled, that  the  people  were  poor,  and  the  times  pecu- 
liarly oppressive  on  Presbyterians:  as  they  were  com- 
pelled to  support  the  established  church  as  well  as 
their  own,  and  money  being  scarce,  it  is  not  proba- 
ble they  could  have  had  the  means  of  building  four 
churches,  three  of  which  are  within  fifteen  miles  of 
each  other,  in  two,  three,  four  or  five  years,  imme- 
diately anterior  to  1705,  and  early  too  in  that  year." 
I  take  precisely  my  friend's  view  of  the  matter,  and 
so,  I  think,  would  any  unprejudiced  mind  acquainted 
with  the  facts.  Remember,  that  the  church  at  Re- 
hob^th,  is  not  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  extract.  O 

I  know  that  "  Philadelphia  claims  the  honour  of 
having  received  into  her  bosom  the  first  regularly 
constituted  Presbyterian  church  in  the  United  States." 
But  is  that  claim  well  founded  ?  I  think  it  has  no 
foundation  whatever.  The  first  regularly  constituted 
Presbyterian  church  which  Philadelphia  "  received 
into  her  bosom"  in  the  year  1698,  was  an  associa- 
tion of  Congregationalists,  Baptists  and  Presbyte- 
rians, and  their  minister  was  a  preacher  of  the  Bap- 

*  See  Appendix  D.,  extract  5. 


88 

tist  persuasion.  Was  that  a  regularly  constituted 
Presbyterian  church  ?  I  cannot  consider  any  con- 
gregation organized  as  regularly  Presbyterian,  un- 
less constituted  according  to  the  'principles  of  that 
form  of  government  adopted  by  an  act  of  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  on  the  10th 
day  of  February,  1645.  I  am  not  saying  that 
Presbyterianism  originated  in  Scotland  ;  so  far  from 
that,  I  hold  that  it  is  older  than  the  circumcision  of 
Timothy,  or  the  conversion  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  But 
the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  so  far  as  human  arrangement 
is  concerned,  is  certainly  the  mother  of  the  Irish  and 
American  churches,  and  to  be  a  Presbyterian  church, 
her  principles  of  government  must  be  adopted.  The 
officers  of  the  church  contemplated  by  that  form  of 
government,  are  pastors  or  teachers  presbyterially 
ordained,  and  ruling  elders,  and  its  members  consist 
of  believers  and  their  children.  Was  that  the  cha- 
racter of  the  congregation  organized  in  the  bosom 
of  Philadelphia  in  1698?  Is  that  a  regularly  consti- 
tuted Presbyterian  church  whose  pastor  denies  that 
the  covenant  promises  of  God  are  to  our  children, 
and  who  refuses  to  sprinkle  them  with  the  baptismal 
water  ?  Who  can  believe,  that  the  association  of 
Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  who  constitut- 
ed what  has  been  called  "  the  first  Presbyterian 
church,"  elected  ruUng  elders  and  deacons,  or  if 
they  did  so,  that  the  gentleman  who  preached  for 
them,  would  have  ordained  those  officers  1  A  "  re- 
gularly constituted  Presbyterian  church"  excluding 
infants  from  its  pale,  without  ruling  elders,  or  dea- 


89 

cons,  and  having  for  its  pastor  a  minister  from  a  dif- 
ferent branch  of  the  christian  church,  and  who  must 
have  been  anti-presbyterian  both  as  to  doctrine  and 
church  government!  I  am  aware,  that  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Andrews  took  charge  of  the  church  in  Philadel- 
phia in  1701.  He,  I  believe,  was  a  Congregational- 
ist.  I  think  that  the  will  of  Mr.  Makemie  shows, 
that  he  died  in  doubt  whether  the  congregation  now 
denominated  "  the  first  church"  in  Philadelphia, 
would  be  Presbyterian  or  Independent  in  its  govern- 
ment. His  will  says,  in  relation  to  it: — "  I  give  and 
bequeath  said  library  to  such  minister,  or  ministers 
as  shall  succeed  him  [Rev.  Mr.  Andrews,]  and  to 
such  only  as  shall  be  of  the  Presbyterian  or  Inde- 
pendent persuasion,  and  none  else,"*  Compare  with 
the  above  extract  the  following  language  used  in  re- 
lation to  the  church  at  Rehob^th  : — "  I  order  and  <^ 
empower  my  executrix  afterwards  nominated  and  ^ 
appointed,  to  sell,  dispose  of,  and  alien  *  *  * 
*  **-*.*  *  # 

******* 
also  my  lot  joining  to  the  new  meeting-house  lot  in 
Pocomoke  town,  called  Rehobeth,  empowering  my 
executrix  afterwards  named,  to  make  over  and  alien- 
ate, that  lot  on  which  the  meeting-house  is  built,  in 
as  ample  manner  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  shall 
be  required  for  the  ends  and  uses  of  a  Presbyterian 
congregation,  as  if  I  were  personally  present,  and  to 
their  successors  for  ever,,  and  to  none  else  but  to  such 

*  See  Appendix  A. 
8* 


90 

of  the  same  persuasion  in  matters  of  religion^  As  to 
the  church  in  Philadelphia,  he  was  wilhng  it  should 
enjoy  his  liberality,  whether  it  assumed  decidedly  the 
Presbyterian  or  the  Independent  form  of  govern- 
nnent :  about  the  church  at  Rehobeth,  which  he  had 
planted,  watered  and  endowed,  he  felt  no  such  un- 
certainty, and  therefore  he  permits  no  option  as  to 
the  religious  name  of  the  persons  who  should  be  be- 
nefited by  the  devise. 

I  may  be  told  of  the  strong  resemblance  which 
exists  between  the  Presbyterian  and  Congregational 
churches.  I  may  be  in  error,  but  popular  blindness 
upon  this  subject  astonishes  me.  1  wish  no  sounder 
Calvinism  than  I  find  in  the  articles  of  religion  of  the 
Episcopal  church;  and  as  to  government,  principles 
equally  important,  broad  and  distinctive,  separate 
Presbyterianism  from  Episcopacy  and  Independency. 
But  I  have  fatigued  myself,  and  am  fearful  that  you 
may  complain  of  the  length  of  this  letter,  in  which  I 
designed  to  conclude  the  subject.  Will  you  permit 
me  to  resume  it  in  my  next? 


91 


LETTER    XII. 

Tlie  subject  continued. 

Rev.  Sir, — 

What  I  regard  as  the  great  beauties  in  our  form 
of  government  is,  the  parity  of  the  ministry,  and  the 
constitution  and  powers  of  "  the  presbytery;"  and 
what  I  consider  our  radical  defect  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  adopted  in  1789,  is  the  attempt  by  pres- 
byteries to  delegate  to  other  ecclesiastical  bodies, 
powers  derived  immediately  from  the  Great  Head  of 
the  church,  which  in  their  nature  are  intransmissible, 
and  to  which  a  maxim  borrowed  from  the  civil  law, 
applies  with  all  its  force,  Potestas  delegata  nmi  dele- 
garl  ixdest.  Can  any  one  doubt  the  absolute  power 
of  a  church  session  over  its  own  pulpit  in  despite  of 
the  presbytery  ?  On  this  subject  the  constitution  is 
jjlain  and  consistent,  and  the  responsibility  of  pro- 
tecting particular  congregations,  from  the  errors  of 
transient  and  heretical  teachers,  is  thrown  upon  their 
spiritual  overseers.  Tf  I  am  not  a  layman*  (and  ac- 
cording to  the  doctrines  of  Dr.  Miller  I  am  not  one,) 

*  He  refers  to  the  office  of  ruling-  elder,  which  he  sustained  in 
the  church  at  SnowhilL 


92 

yet  about  these  matters  I  claim  the  same  degree  of 
indulgence,  and  ask  that  this  error  in  opinion^  if  it 
be  one,  may  be  excused.  I  almost  regret  that  I  have 
found  any  fault  with  the  constitution  of  the  church, 
but  the  train  of  thought  was  suggested  by  the  differ- 
ence between  the  first  Presbyterian  church  in  Phila- 
delphia in  its  early  days,  and  a  regularly  constituted 
Presbyterian  church. 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Andrews  was  a  member  of  the 
first  presbytery  organized  in  the  colonies,  affords  no 
proof  that  either  he  or  his  people  were  Presbyte- 
rian in  their  predilections.  W  there  were  not  more 
than  a  half  dozen  Presbyterian  and  Independent  mi- 
nisters between  the  southern  boundary  of  New  York 
and  Terra  del  Fuego,  I  think  they  w^ould  all  willing- 
ly meet  in  an  ecclesiastical  court,  whether  called 
classis,  council,  convention,  conference,  association,  ' 
consociation,  or  presbytery. 

But  I  think  the  latter  extract  from  the  will  of  Mr. 
Makemie,  in  my  last  letter,  raises  a  doubt  whether 
the  meeting-house  referred  to,  was  not  a  second 
church  edifice  erected  upon,  or  near  the  same  site. 
He  says,  "the  neiv  meeting-house."  Now,  so  far  as 
I  am  advised,  it  is,  and  has  been  unusual  to  quahfy 
the  term  church,  or  meeting-house,  by  the  word  7ie7c, 
but  by  the  party  name  of  the  christian  society  for 
whose  use  it  is  erected  ;  but  the  practice  is,  and  ha& 
been  universal,  so  to  describe  the  house  when  the 
same  congregation  had  occupied  aa  oldter  one.  I 
have  the  records  of  a  church  session  at  hand,  by 
whose   procurement   three  churches  were    succes- 


93 

sively  built;  the  second  and  the  third,  each  in  its 
turn,  became  the  new  meeting-house,  and  is  so  called 
for  a  time  by  the  record. 

I  would  mention  another  fact  in  this  connexion. 
As  early  as  1707,  the  congregation  at  Snowhill  could 
alone,  and  unaided,  support  a  pastor  ;  and  in  1709,  a 
benefaction  to  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  of  £30, 
was  ordered  by  that  body,  to  be  diiitributed  amongst 
the  most  necessitous  congregations.  The  churches 
in  New  Castle  and  Philadelphia,  each  received  a 
share,  but,  I  think,  the  records  of  the  presbytery 
will  prove  that  not  one  penny  of  the  amount  was 
given  to  the  church  at  Snowhill. 

Would  you  inquire  wdiy  there  is  not  record  evi- 
dence of  the  a^esof  the  churches  in  Somerset?  The 
answer  is  readily  given.  The  churches  were  built  on 
private  property  :  the  early  sessional  records  are  lost, 
and  no  public  registration  was  necessary,  until  ex- 
torted by  the  act  of  1702,  about  the  provisions  of 
which  you  read  in  my  fourth  letter.  That  law,  it  is 
behoved,  was  not  enforced  against  the  dissenters 
here  for  some  years  after  its  passage,  although  its 
terms  were  complied  with  by  the  first  and  only  bre- 
thren who  laboured  with  Mr.  Makemie  in  the  field. 

I  refuse  to  the  first  ciiurch  in  Philadelphia,  the 
name  of  a  "regularly  constituted  Presbyterian 
church,"  until  it  became  Presbyterian  in  govern- 
nfient  and  doctrine ;  but  date  its  ors^anization  in 
1698,  and  I  think  the  evidence  is  not  only  clear  and 
cogent,  but  convincing,  that  it  is  younger  than  the 
five  churches  in  Maryland. 


94 

I  feel  as  though  in  this  letter  and  its  two  immedi- 
ate predecessors,  I  may  have  been  chasing  "small 
game;"  but  if  the  honour  of  having  received  into  her 
bosom  the  first  regularly  constituted  Presbyterian 
church  in  the  United  States,  be  of  sufficient  value  to  be 
claimed  by  Philadelphia,  it  cannot  be  wholly  unimpor- 
tant to  resist  that  claim,  if  it  is  not  well  founded.  I 
have  written  these  letters  without  any  unkind  feeling 
towards  a  living  being,  and  were  I  conscious  that  they 
contain  any  thing  to  offend  any  one,  deeply  should  I 
regret  having  written  them.  But  call  it  pride,  or  pre- 
judice of  education,  or  superstition,  it  is  nevertheless 
true,  that  I  venerate  an  ancient  church. 


95 


LETTER   XIIL 
p 

The  church  atRehob^h  the  eldest  of  tJie  family  of  churches  in  Somerset  county, 
Maryland.— Reflection  suggested  by  the  present  dilapidated  state  of  that  eldest 
of  American  Presbyterian  churclies. — Mr.  Makemie  the  first  pastor  of  that 
church.— His  successor  Rev.  John  Henry.— Mr.  Henrj's  eonnexicms  and  de- 
scendants  His  death  in  1717.— His   manuscript  volume  written  for  the  use  of 

his  descendants. 

Rev.  Sir, — 

Of  the  family  of  Presbyterian  churches  in  Somer- 
set and  Worcester  counties,  the  church  at  Rehobdth 
has  been  generally  considered  the  eldest  sister,  i  o 
her  claim  to  seniority  I  submit;  my  hand  shall  never 
pluck  a  single  one  of  her  honours. 

All  ruins  are  melancholy  spectacles,  but  to  me  the 
sight  of  a  church  in  ruins  is  positively  painful.  To 
think  of  generations  now  sleeping  in  the  dust,  who 
in  years  that  have  passed,  occupied  places  within 
those  crumbling  walls,  and  there  held  that  commu- 
nion with  God  which  qualified  them  for  the  kindred, 
but  infinitely  superior  enjoyments  of  his  upper  sanc- 
tuary ;  to  ponder  on  the  happy  seasons  which  have 
been  thus  enjoyed  by  those  who  have  feasted  on  the 
fatness  of  God's  house,  and  then  to  reflect,  that  those 
seasons  never  can  return,  will  touch  any  heart  in 
which  God  has  shed  abroad  his  love. 

I   have  always   regretted   the   destruction   of  so 


many  church  edifices  in  Scotland  by  the  rage  of  the 
Reformation.  The  abomination  was  not  in  the  walls, 
nor  even  in  the  statuary  nor  paintings,  which  orna- 
mented them;  if  the  friends  of  the  truth  had  said  to 
the  money  changers  and  mass  mongers:  "Take 
these  things  hence,"  and  then  drove  them  out  with 
scourges  made  of  small  cords,  those  dens  of  thieves 
might  have  been  converted  into  houses  of  prayer. 
A  church  may  be  in  ruins  notwithstanding  the  con- 
dition of  the  building  in  which  it  has  been  wont  to 
assemble,  may  be  not  only  comfortable  but  superb. 
Between  a  church  in  good  health,  and  one  abound- 
ing in  lukewarm,  hypocritical  and  self-deceiving 
members,  there  is  as  much  difference  as  between  a 
healthy,  happy  and  industrious  family,  and  one,  some 
of  whose  members  are  gasping  for  life,  and  others 
already  dead  and  undergoing  putrefaction. 

There  are  within  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Lewes,  many  church  ruins,  but  w^e  have  reason  to 
be  thankful  that  the  church  at  Rehob^th  is  not  one 
of  them.  That  house  of  God  is  in  comfortable  re- 
pair, and  its  register  still  contains  the  names  of  a  few 
who  will,  I  trust,  walk  with  the  Lamb  in  white,  be- 
cause they  are  worthy;  but  they  may  now  take  up 
the  melting  strain  of  the  prophet,  whose  harp  was 
tuned  into  mourning,  "The  ways  of  Zion  do  mourn 
because  none  come  to  the  solemn  feasts:  all  her 
gates  are  desolate.  Behold,  O  Lord,  for  I  am  in  dis- 
tress :  my  bowels  are  troubled  ;  my  heart  is  turned 
within  me,  for  1  have  grievously  rebelled."  If  the 
things  that   remain  and  are  ready  to  die,  be  not 


97 

shortly  strengthened,  the  church  at  Rehobeth  will  be 
among  the  wreck  of  things  that  were. 

"  The  first  congregation  which  worshipped  at  Re- 

Q  hobeth,  consisted  of  English  dissenters.  A  few  fa- 
milies migrated  from  England,  their  consciences  not 
suffering  them  to  comply  with  the  establishment  then 
existing,  and  settled  near  the  mouth  of  Pocomoke 
river  and  the  adjacent  parts;  some  on  the  east,  and 
some  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  and  formed  them- 
selves into  a  religious  society  for  the  public  worship 
of  God,  A  house  for  public  worship  was  built  on 
the  west  side  of  the  river,  at  a  place  called  Reho- 

^  b)^th."*  That  emigration  and  organization  of  the 
church  must  have  taken  place  before  the  passage 
of  the  act  of  1702,  for  after  that  time  the  law's  of 
Maryland  and  England,  as  to  Protestant  dissenters, 
were  alike,  and  imposed  equal  burdens  upon  their 
purses  and  their  consciences. 

The  authority  last  quoted  asserts  that  the  Rev. 
Francis  Makemie  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Rehobeth,  but  there  could  exist  no  doubt  upon  the 
subject,  had  it  been  silent.  His  successor  in  that 
pastoral  charge  was  the  Rev.  John  Henry.  I  know 
not  at  what  time  he  arrived  in  Maryland,  or  settled 
in  Somerset ;  but  presume  it  was  soon  aft^r  the  death 
of  Mr.  Makemie.  He  stood  high,  not  only  as  a  di- 
vine, but  also  as  a  citizen,  and  his  descendants  have 
been  at  all  times  as  respectable  as  any  members  of 
our  community;  indeed  one  of  them  was  for  a  time 

*  Copied  from  the  autograph  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  McMaster, 
for  many  years  pastor  of  the  churcli. 
9 


98 

the  governor  of  the  State.  His  wife  was  Mary,  who 
had  been  the  wife  and  widow  of  Colonel  Francis 
Jenkins,  both  of  whom  I  mentioned  in  a  former  let- 
ter. Mr.  Makemie  calls  her  in  his  will,  the  "beloved 
consort"  of  Colonel  Jenkins,  and  leaves  us  in  a  plea- 
sant kind  of  uncertainty :  for  whether  we  understand 
the  intention  of  the  writer  or  not,  we  cannot  err 
from  the  truth. — She  was  the  consort  of  Colonel 
Jenkins,  and  certainly  "  beloved,"  whether  predicated 
of  the  testator  or  of  her  husband.  Mr.  Makemie 
entrusted  to  her,  provisionally,  the  most  precious 
charge,  except  his  own  soul,  that  God  had  commit- 
ted to  him  ;  and  her  husband,  who  left  no  child,  be- 
queathed to  her  an  immense  estate.  She  was  a  dis- 
tinguished woman,  or  as  I  have  heard  her  called,  "  a 
great  woman."  Her  maiden  name  was  King.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  King,  an  Irish  Bar- 
onet. She  is  uniformly  called  on  the  public  records, 
"  Madam ;"  but  whether  on  account  of  the  baron- 
etcy of  her  father,  the  colonelcy  of  her  first  hus- 
band, or  the  clerical  profession  of  her  second  and 
third  husbands,  I  am  uncertain.  She  left  two  sons, 
the  only  descendants  of  herself  or  of  Mr.  Henry; 
they  both  attained  manhood  ;  were  married,  and  their 
descendants  may  be  found  in  Dorchester,  Somerset 
and  Worcester  counties,  and  in  other  parts  of  Ma- 
ryland. After  the  death  of  Mr.  Henry,  she  became 
the  wife  of  the  Rev.  John  Hampton,*  whom  she  sur- 
vived.   She  died  in  1744.    Mr.  Henry  died  in  1717.t 

*  See  Mr.  Hampton's  will  in  Appendix  C. 
f  See  Mr.  Henry's  will  in  Appendix  C. 


99 

I  remember  to  have  seen,  seventeen  years  ago,  a 
manuscript  strongly-bound  octavo  volume  of  from 
three  to  five  hundred  pages,  entitled  "  Common 
Place."  It  was  a  mass  of  religious  instructions  pre- 
pared by  Mr.  Henry  for  his  descendants.  From  my 
recollection  of  the  book,  it  enforced  the  prominent 
doctrines  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  in  their  length 
and  breadth,  urged  upon  those  who  should  inherit 
his  name  or  blood,  the  faithful  performance  of  the 
duties  which  result  from  them — with  his  advice  as  to 
the  best  manner  of  performing  those  duties.  I  re- 
member that  he  recommended  9  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing as  the  hour  for  family  worship.  The  book  was 
made  up  with  great  care,  was  more  legible  than 
many  printed  volumes,  and  must  have  cost  much  la- 
bour. I  would  not  make  the  impression,  that  Mr. 
Henry  elevated  the  Confession  of  Faith  above  the 
Bible ;  he  considered  that  there  was  perfect  concord 
between  them.  As  for  myself,  I  consider  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  the  best  commentary  and  the  best 
summary  of  Bible  truth. 


100 


LETTER   XIY. 

Memoir  of  the  Rev.  David  Purviance. 

Rev.  Sir, — 

I  commence  this  letter  with  the  deliberate  purpose 
of  acting  disorderly.  I  shall  write  about  the  dead. 
They  were  neither  ministers  nor  elders,  nor  even 
members  of  the  peninsular  churches,  whose  history 
has  heretofore  occupied  our  attention;  indeed  they 
were  not  citizens  of  this  State,  but  they  were  fellow 
citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God, 
and  were  called  to  their  eternal  rest  while  labouring 
in,  and  for  the  churches  of  Somerset  and  Worcester 
counties.* 

The  first  whom  I  shall  mention,  is  the  Rev.  David 
Purviance.  All  that  I  know  about  him  is  contained 
in  the  memoranda  of  my  boyhood ;  but  I  was  at  that 
time  so  much  interested  by  what  I  learned  from  one 
who  knew  him,  that  I  committed  the  facts  to  paper. 
Why  is  it,  do  you  think,  that  the  doubt  whether  any 
other  human  being  is  aware  that  such  a  man  as 
David  Purviance  ever  lived,  makes  me  anxious  to 
tell  you  all  I  know  in  relation  to  him  ?     Is  it  that 

*  The  author  does  not  of  course  here  include  Mr.  Duffield, 
who  was  a  member  and  aa  elder  of  a  peninsular  church. 


101 

clinging  to  life  which  builds  minsters,  and  mauso- 
leums over  the  departed,  which  records  the  virtues 
in  deep  cut  marble,  and  which  induces  survivors  to 
embalm  th^ir  bodies  with  sweet  spices?  We  are 
strangely  constituted  creatures  :  our  bodies  are  fear- 
fully and  wonderfully  made ;  but  I  consider  the  mo- 
ral man  a  much  more  subtle,  fearful  and  wonderful 
creation ;  and  the  mode  of  its  existence,  and  the 
nature  and  the  consequences  of  its  union  with  that 
mass  of  corruptible  matter  which  will  soon  be  de- 
stroyed by  worms,  or  fish,  or  fire,  as  hard  to  be  un- 
derstood as  any  thing:;  revealed  in  the  Bible.  I  am 
compelled  to  believe  in  relation  to  myself,  what  is  as 
entirely  incomprehensible,  and  as  profoundly  mys- 
terious, as  any  revelation  which  God  has  made  to 
man,  either  as  to  his  own  character  or  the  dispen- 
sations of  his  providence.  I  love  to  think  of  death. 
Do  not  suppose  1  am  boasting  when  I  say  so ;  for  I 
am  often  fearful  that  in  that  awful  hour,  Satan  will 
be  permitted  to  sift  me  as  wheat.  But  the  funeral  of 
the  pious  dead  is  more  grateful  to  my  feelings  than 
the  most  merry  meetings,  or  dehghtful  measures. 
Why  should  not  christians  love  to  contemplate  death. 
Here  we  are  but  strangers  and  pilgrims;  but  death 
will  terminate  our  pilgrimage,  and  if  we  are  the  call- 
ed according  to  God's  purpose,  we  shall  then  go  home 
and  occupy  those  mansions  in  our  Father's  house, 
which  have  been  prepared  for  us  by  our  elder  bro- 
ther :  here  we  are  engaged  in  continual  conflicts  with 
sin,  and  exposed  to  every  ill  that  flesh  is  heir  to; 
there  we  shall  be  made  like  unto  Jesus^  because  we 
9* 


102 

shall  see  him  as  he  is :  here,  our  spiritual  comforts 
are  stinted  or  dila-ted,  and  we  too  often  depend  for 
their  supply  upon  broken  cisterns,  and  even  when 
that  is  not  the  fact, 

"  We  drink,  and  drink,  and  drink  again, 
And  drink,  and  still  are  dry ;" 

there,  we  shall  bathe  in  waters  purer  than  those  of 
Siloah,  although  they  went  softly  and  flowed  fast  by 
the  oracles  of  God,  and  will  drink  of  the  pure  river 
of  the  water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out 
of  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  ;  here  we  see 
through  a  glass  darkly;  there,  delightful  thought!  we 
sinners,  saved  by  grace,  will  gaze  upon  the  ineffable 
glories  of  the  Godhead.  "It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  living  God,"  but  we  know  that 
faiih  can  take  from  death  its  sting,  and  from  the 
grave  its  victory. — 

"  There  is  no  by-road 


To  bliss.     Then  why,  like  ill  conditioned  children. 
Start  we  at  transient  hardships,  in  the  way 
Which  leads  to  purer  air,  and  softer  skies, 
And  a  ne'er  setting-  sun?     Fools  that  we  are. 
We  wish  to  be  where  sweets  unwith'ring-  bloom; 
But  straig-ht  our  wish  revoke,  and  will  not  go.*' 

You  may  tell  me  that  all  this  morahsing  about 
death,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  subject  of  these  let- 
ters. My  first  letter  avows  my  purpose  of  selecting 
my  own  topics,  and  managing  them  according  to  the 
caprice  of  my  own  fancy.  But  death  has  had  much 
to  do  with.  David   Purviance — it  broke  his  heart- 


103 

strings,  and  will  soon  perform  the  same  office  for 
us — ^but  to  return  : — 

Mr.  Purviance  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
a  licentiate  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia.  He 
was  reared  and  educated  by  a  maternal  uncle,  as  I 
ascertain  from  the  correspondence  occasioned  by  his 
death,  between  the  gentleman  at  whose  house  he 
died  and  a  relation  of  Mr.  Purviance  of  the  same 
name,  who  resided  in  Philadelphia  ;  those  letters  are 
now  in  my  possession.  He  had  been  sent  by  the 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  to  perform  missionary 
services  in  the  vacant  churches  on  this  peninsula; 
and  ha<l  discharged  the  duties  of  his  mission  faith- 
fully, and  most  acceptably  to  the  congregations  in 
which  he  laboured.  The  church  at  Snowhill  had  no 
pastor  at  that  time,  and  Mr.  Purviance  gave  to  it  a 
liberal  portion  of  the  time  and  labour  w^hich  he  ex- 
pended in  this  region-  He  was  an  interesting  youno- 
man.  I  have  said  already,  that  what  I  know  con- 
cerning him,  was  collected  from  one  who  was  ac- 
quainted with  him  :  my  informer  was  the  daughter 
of  the  gentleman  at  whose  house  he  for  some  time 
lived,  and  at  which  he  died  ;  that  house  has  been  the 
home  of  clergymen,  for  more  than  a  century.  I. 
take  leave  to  say  of  the  lady  herself,  that  she  was  in- 
telligent, a  Bible  student,  an  enlightened  Presbyte- 
rian, and  was  considered  by  those  who  knew  her,  not 
only  a  consistent,  but  a  very  pious  member  of  the 
church  from  the  days  of  her  youth  until  her  death, 
on  the  30th  of  August,  1821,  in  the  79th  year  of  her 
age. 


104 

Mr.  Purviance  came  to  these  churches  in  buoyant 
youth,  and  apparently  vigorous  health.  He  spent  a 
night,  unexpectedly,  at  the  house  of  a  stranger,  and 
discovered  when  he  arose  in  the  morning,  that  a 
window  covered  with  a  curtain,  had  been  left  open : 
he  never  again  had  health.  The  exposure  produced 
disease  which  assailed  his  lungs,  and  after  lingering 
a  short  time,  he  died.  In  the  interval  between  his 
attack  and  his  death,  he  and  the  friends  with  whom 
he  resided,  believed  that  he  was  not  only  convales- 
cent, but  wholly  relieved  ;  and  at  the  very  moment  of 
his  death,  his  horse,  by  his  own  order,  was  standing 
at  the  door  to  bear  him  to  the  home  of  his  child- 
hood. It  is  true,  although  not  contained  in  so  many 
words  in  the  scriptures,  that  in  the  midst  of  life  we 
are  in  death.  A  short  time  before  his  death,  when 
Mr.  Purviance  and  his  friends  considered  his  health 
restored,  he  had  attended  a  funeral :  to  that  was  at- 
tributed afterwards  his  unexpected  death.  He  w^as 
a  talker  in  his  sleep;  but  one  of  an  extraordinary 
character.  He  plead  in  that  way  God's  "exceeding 
great  and  precious  promises.'''  Early  in  the  morn- 
ing on  which  he  died,  a  member  of  the  family  near 
his  chamber-door,  heard  him  Litter,  whilst  asleep,  the 
gracious  words  contained  in  the  first  three  verses  of 
the  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  gospel  of  Johni  "Let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled  :  ye  believe  in  God,  be- 
lieve also  in  me.  In  my  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions.  If  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you^ 
I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.  And  if  I  go  and 
prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  wdll  come  again,  and  ce- 


105 

eeive  you  unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  there  ye 
may  be  also."  He  arose  afterwards,  prepared  for 
his  journey,  breakfasted  with  the  family,  ascended 
the  stairs  to  his  chamber  for  some  purpose,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  afterwards  slept  in  death.  This  occur- 
red in  the  spring  or  summer  of  1757.  His  grave  is 
in  the  yard  of  the  church  in  Snowhill,  and  has  been 
most  carefully  protected  by  the  congregation,  and  I 
have  been  pleased,  indeed  amused,  at  the  jealousy 
with  which  they  watch  it.  They  know  nothing  about 
it,  but  that  a  Presbyterian  missionary  sleeps  there, 
but  by  those  whose  place  in  the  church  they  now 
occupy,  they  have  been  taught  to  honour  the  spot.  1 
should  be  pleased  to  show  you  the  chamber  where 
he  met  his  fate,  and  to  point  out  the  spot  where  sleeps 
the  dust  of  David  Purviance. 


106 


LETTER  XV. 

Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Blatchford. 

Rev.  Sir, — 

I  wish  to  communicate  to  you  at  this  time,  some 
particulars  in  relation  to  another  of  death's  doings* 
I  am  aware  that  I  incur  risk,  for  I  entertain  many 
doubts  whether  my  last  letter  contained  any  thing  to 
interest  you,  and  I  had  advantages  there  of  which  I 
cannot  here  avail  myself.  Death,  to  be  sure,  has 
canonized  the  excellencies  of  his  character  about 
whom  I  shall  write  ;  but  the  facts  are  of  recent  oc- 
currence, and  therefore  known  to  many,  as  well  as 
your  correspondent.  The  twilight  which  rests  on 
the  things  and  the  persons  from  whom  we  are  sepa- 
rated by  a  long  interval  of  rolling  years,  greatly  en- 
hances their  value  in  the  estimation  of  all  who  at- 
tempt their  retrospection.  Upon  your  indulgence, 
however,  on  this  occasion,  I  have  peculiar  claims. 
The  person  about  whom  I  shall  write,  broke  the  bread 
of  life  to  the  people  recently  in  your  pastoral  charge, 
and  between  which  and  yourself  exists  the  strongest 
reciprocal  attachment;  he  died  in  an  apartment 
which  you  have  probably  since  occupied,  and  where 
you  have  no    doubt  consumed   much  oil  in  poring 


107 

over  huge  theological  folios  ;  and  some  of  the  inci- 
dents occurred  in  the  church  whose  walls  have  hun- 
dreds of  times  echoed  with  the  threatenings  and  the 
invitations  of  the  gospel  which  they  have  caught  from 
your  lips.  You  have  read  this  inscription  on  the 
neat  white  marble  slab  planted  within  a  few  feet  of 
the  front  of  the  last  named  church :  "  By  the  con- 
gregations OF  Snowhill,  Pittscreek,  Rehobj^th, 
AND  MoNOKiN."  That  slab  covers  the  grave  of  one 
who,  humanly  speaking,  w^as  cut  down  in  the  very 
midst  of  his  usefulness. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Blatchford  was  a  native  of  Eng- 
land. I  think  he  was  born  in  Devonshire,  or  Corn- 
wall, but  his  father,  the  late  Rev.  Samuel  Blatchford, 
D.D.  of  Lansingburg,  New  York,  removed  with  his 
family  to  this  country,  when  Henry  was  very  young, 
perhaps  not  more  than  two  years  old,  and  here  they 
continued  to  reside  until  they  ceased  to  live.  I  know 
nothing  of  the  early  life  of  Mr.  Blatchford,  except 
what  was  contained  in  a  letter  received  from  his 
father  after  his  death.  That  letter,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  I  have  lost.  He  was,  however,  liberally  educa- 
ted, and  a  member  of  the  first  class  of  students 
which  was  organized  at  the  Theological  Seminary  at 
Princeton,  New  Jersey.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
summer  of  1822,  the  churches  at  Snowhill,  Pitt's 
P  creek,  Rehob^th,*  and  Monokin,  were  without  a 
'^^  preacher.     To   interrupt  the  silence  of  their  Sab- 

*  It  may  be  necessary  to  say,  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Batch,  then  the 
pastor  of  the  three  first  named  churches,  had  at  that  time  leave 
of  absence  for  an  indefinite  period,  on  account  of  ill  health. 


108 

baths,  Mr.  Blatchford  visited  them.  He  had  not  long 
before  that  time,  resigned  the  pastoral  charge  of  a 
church  in  Salem.  The  first  sermon  which  he  preach- 
ed in  either  of  those  churches,  perhaps  the  first  one 
he   preached  in   this    peninsula,   was    delivered   in 
Snowhill,  on  a   Sabbath    morning  in  the  month  of 
June.     His  text  was  Job  xxvii.  8th. — "  For  what  is 
the  hope  of  the  hypocrite  though   he  hath  gained, 
when  God  taketh  away  his  soul  ?"     It  was  an  able, 
pungent,  searching  sermon,  and  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion upon  his  auditory.     His  preaching  was  most  ac- 
ceptable  to  christians  of  all   names ;  and  whilst  he 
laboured  here,  the  people  became  increasingly  inte- 
rested in  his  public  ministrations.    His  sermons  were 
not   merely  carefully,  but  punctiliously   elaborated, 
and  he   read  them,  I  believe,  precisely  as  they  had 
been   written.     The    churches   of    Snowhill,   Pitts- 
^     creek  and  Rehob^th,  had  the  larger  share,  but  the 
*^     church  at  Princess  Anne  (I  ought  to  say  the  church 
at  Monokin,  for  that  is  its  name,)  also  enjoyed  a  por- 
tion of  his  labours.     I   never  knew  a  minister  who 
gained   more    rapidly  upon    the    affections  of  those 
whom  he    taught  publicly  ;  but  especially  of  those 
with  whom    he    mingled   in   social  intercourse.     It 
fully  justified   the  expression  in  an  obituary  notice, 
written  by  a  friend,  who   had  no  doubt  known  him 
much  longer  than  I :  "  All  ic/io  knew  him  loved  himJ'^ 

On  Sunday,  the day  of 1822,  he 

preached  three  times  in  the  church  at  Snowhill.  His 
public  prayers,  at  all  times  remarkable  for  their 
fluency,  fervour,  and  humble  familiarity  with  God, 


109 

were  so  remarkable  for  those  qualities  on  that  day, 
and  especially  in  the  evening,  as  to  thrill  the  feelings 
of  those  who  in  faith  united  with  him.  I  remember 
distinctly  the  expression  of  a  female  in  very  humble 
life,  a  member  of  a  church  of  a  different  name  :  "I 
never  heard  such  prayers,"  said  she,  "  they  pierce 
through  and  through  me."  Her  form  of  expression 
might  perhaps  have  been  more  elegant,  but  any  at- 
tempt of  mine  to  communicate  to  you  the  same  truth 
with  equal  force,  would  be  worse  than  in  vain.  The 
text  of  his  third  sermon  preached  on  the  evening  of 
that  day,  was  John  i.  41  :  "  We  have  found  the  Mes- 
sias ;  which  is,  being  interpreted,  the  Christ."  I  know 
not  that  he  had  ever  preached  with  deeper  feeling  or 
greater  power,  and  he  concluded  the  sermon  by  re- 
peating that  solemn  hymn,  one  verse  of  which 
is: — 

Lo!  on  a  narrow  neck  of  land, 
'Twixt  two  unbounded  seas  I  stand, 

Yet  how  insensible ! 
A  point  of  time,  a  moment's  space, 
Secures  me  in  that  heavenly  place, 

Or  shuts  me  up  in  hell! 

It  was  his  last  sermon,  and  but  one  other  earthly 
Sabbath  dawned  upon  him  ;  for  on  Saturday  the  7th 
of  September,  at  Princess  Anne,  whither  he  had 
gone  but  a  few  days  before,  he  fell  asleep,  and  enter- 
ed, I  doubt  not,  upon  a  Sabbath,  which  will  never 
end. 

On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  I  attended  his  funeral, 
and  could  my  pen  shed  the  light  of  pur€,  unadulter- 
10 


110 

ated  truth  upon  the  scenes  to  which  that  visit  intro- 
duced me,  this  letter  I  am  persuaded  would  have  at- 
tractions for  you,  although  the  transactions  of  yes- 
terday constitute  its  burden.  You  know  that  I  have 
visited  Princess  Anne  very  many  times,  in  fact  have 
spent  much  time  there  ;  but  never  did  J  see  that  vil- 
lage so  quiet  on  any  day  as  on  that  one — it  was  Sab- 
bath stillness  indeed.  The  people  of  the  place  of  all 
classes,  were  not  only  grave  but  seemed  awed,  and 
their  sensibilities  were  certainly  tenderly  alive.  Prin- 
cess Anne  certainly  never  looked  so  lovely.  The 
funeral  services  were  performed  in  the  church,  and 
at  the  grave.  In  the  absence  of  a  Presbyterian  mi- 
nister, an  Episcopal  clergyman  preached  a  sermon 
on  the  occasion:  he  was  assisted  in  the  other  services 
by  two  brethren  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 
The  sermon  was  a  good  one,  and  the  other  exercises 
w^ere  not  only  appropriate,  but  interesting.  I  have 
been  in  many  worshipping  assemblies,  but  that  cer- 
tainly was  one  of  the  most  solemn  and  tender  con- 
gregations of  which  I  ever  made  a  part.  The  death 
of  Mr.  Blatchford  was  unexpected  :  the  people  ap- 
peared to  recognize  the  hand  of  "  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth,"  to  realize  the  uncertainty  of  their  own 
hold  on  life  ;  to  feel,  in  a  measure  at  least,  the  im- 
port of  the  injunction,  "  Be  still  and  know  that  I  am 
God ;"  and  the  removal  of  such  a  man  to  his  "  long 
home,"  whilst  far  away  from  father,  and  mother,  and 
wife,  and  children,  and  all  the  friends  of  his  early 
life,  aroused  all  their  sympathies,  and  bathed  the 
faces  of  the  speakers  and  many  of  their  hearers  in 


Ill 

tears.  I  remember  at  this  moment,  the  appearance 
and  the  manner  of  one  of  the  Methodist  clergymen 
who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  grave :  his  eyes  were 
red  and  swollen,  and  his  voice  husky;  and  elevating 
his  right  hand,  he  commenced  an  address  to  the  con- 
gregation, substantially  as  follows  : — "  It  has  been, 
and  is,  my  prayer,  to  die  as  our  brother  has  died  ;  to 
be  called  home  while  busily  engaged  doing  my  Mas- 
ter's work."  But  I  feel  that  all  my  attempts  to  do 
justice  to  the  events  which  this  letter  notices,  have 
failed,  and  I  will  now  release  you  from  the  perusal 
of  its  dull  details.  I  send  you  herewith  a  copy  of  a 
letter  which  I  addressed  to  a  friend  in  Philadelphia, 
in  October  1831,  which  appeared  in  the  Christian 
Advocate  of  the  succeeding  month.  It  contains  a 
brief  memoir  of  a  ruling  elder,  who  was  one  of  my 
most  highly  valued  friends.         #         #         #         « 


112 


LETTER  XVI. 

Memoir  of  John  P.  Duffleld,  Esq. 

Rev.  Sir, — 

The  reading  of  this  brief  memoir  of  a  departed 
friend,  may  afford  you  but  Httle  pleasure ;  and  that 
you  receive  it,  is  attributable  to  the  promise  that  I 
made  you  at  our  last  interview,  that  I  would  prepare 
and  forward  it  to  you.  Forgive,  my  friend,  its  dul- 
ness,  in  consideration  of  its  object,  and  the  simphcity 
of  my  purpose.  I  would  record  several  particulars 
in  relation  to  a  christian  brother  removed  from  his 
labours  to  his  rest,  which  depend  entirely  upon  my 
own  memory ;  I  would  exhibit  a  triumph  of  divine 
grace ;  I  would  furnish  you  with  a  few  incidents  in 
the  life  of  a  ruling  elder,  the  recollection  of  which  is 
most  agreeable  to  myself.  How  lamentably  small  is 
the  number  who  know  any  thing  of  the  spiritual  cha- 
racter of  the  office  of  ruling  elder  or  of  its  dignity 
in  the  church  of  God ! 

John  Potts  Duffield  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Benjamin 
Duffield,  a  distinguished  physician  of  Philadelphia, 
and  was  born  in  that  city  November  2d,  1784. 

His  father  was  attached  to  the  Episcopal  church ; 
and  the  son  was  baptized  by  him,  who  is  at  this  time 


113 

senior  bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  reared  as  a 
member  of  the  congregation  at  that  time  in  his  es- 
pecial charge.  Had  the  wishes  of  his  father  been 
gratified,  he  would  have  been  educated  for  his  own 
profession;  but  the  death  of  Dr.  Duffield,  when  his 
son  was  only  fifteen  years  old,  defeated  those  wishes. 
He  was  permitted  to  choose  his  own  calling,  and  be- 
came a  sailor.  From  that  time  until  the  year  1811, 
he  continued  in  what  was  then  his  favourite  employ- 
ment; and  had  passed  from  the  subordinate  place, 
which  at  first  he  very  properly  occupied,  to  the  com- 
mand, and  had  made  several  voyages  to  India,  to 
Europe,  and  to  South  America.  He  was  a  skilful 
navigator,  and  had  acquired  the  confidence  of  all 
who  were  interested  in  his  commercial- enterprises. 
He  was  twice  happily  married.  His  first  marriage 
took  place  in  1811,  from  which  time  until  his  death, 
be  continued  to  reside  in  Worcester  county,  Mary- 
land:  he  was  married  a  second  time  in  1821.  Seven 
children  survived  him — three  by  his  first,  and  four 
by  his  second  marriage.  With  the  skill  and  reputa- 
tion of  a  sailor,  Mr.  Duffield  had,  alas!  acquired  the 
vices  too  common  to  his  profession.  I  know  not  that 
he  was  skeptical  or  intemperate;  but  it  is  neverthe- 
less true,  that  he  was  a  blasphemer — "  that  he  walk- 
ed in  the  counsel  of  the  ungodly,  and  stood  in  the 
way  of  sinners,  and  sat  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful." 
Such  was  his  character  at  the  time  of  his  first  mar- 
riage, and  such  it  continued  to  be  until  the  spring  of 
1812.  However  much  you  may  be  surprised  at  the 
declaration,  it  gives  me  pleasure  to  charge  the  cha- 
10* 


114 

racter  of  my  friend  with  the  sins  of  which  he  was 
guilty ;  and  to  enunnerate  his  spiritual  diseases  in  all 
their  loathsomeness ;  for  where  sin  abounded,  grace 
did  afterwards  much  more  abound,  and  over  his  be- 
setting sins  he  came  off  more  than  a  conqueror, 
through  him  that  loved  him.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
moral  world  comparable  in  beauty  or  grandeur  with 
the  church  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  in  the  life  of  an  in- 
dividual there  is  no  period  so  interesting  to  christian 
feelings  as  that  which  translates  him  from  the  king- 
dom of  Satan  into  the  kingdom  of  God's  dear  Son. 
Should  this  part  of  this  memoir  be  improperly  mi- 
nute, may  I  not  hope  that  you  will  pardon  me  ? 

I  have  already  said  that  Mr.  Duffield  was  married 
in  1811  :  his  wife  was  the  pious  daughter  of  a  pious 
mother,  and  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
at  Snowhill,  in  full  Standing.*  In  the  spring  of  1812, 
to  gratify  her  wishes,  and  perhaps  accomplish  some 
vain  purpose  of  his  own,  he  accompanied  her  to 
Snowhill  from  their  residence  in  the  country  a  few 
miles  distant,  on  the  morning  of  Saturday;  there 
were  services  in  the  Presbyterian  church  on  that 
day,  preparatory  to  the  administration  of  the  Lord's 
supper  on  the  next.  They  visited  the  house  of  a 
friend  who  was  a  member  of  the  church ;  and  the 
subject  of  this  memoir  carried  with  him  all  his  love 
of  sin,  and  entire  carelessness  to  the  interests  of  his 


*  I  knew  her  long-  and  loved  her  much.  One  of  the  last  sen- 
tences which  she  addressed  to  mortal  ears,  was  in  substance  : 
Oh!  he  [Christ]  is  inexpressibly  precious  to  my  soul. 


115 

sauI,  or  the  wrath  of  God.  He  would  not  attend 
upon  the  religious  services  of  that  day.  The  gen- 
tleman whom  he  visited,  on  his  return  from  church, 
found  him  preparing  for  some  idle  recreation,  and 
to  his  friend's  inquiry,  "  why  he  had  not  gone  to 
church?'  he  replied  in  some  of  those  "  grievous 
words"  which  generally  "  stir  up  strife."  Such  a 
man  was  John  P.  Duffield,  on  the  morning  of  the  next 
day,  when  he  took  his  seat  in  the  sanctuary  of  God, 
and  so  careless,  hard-hearted,  and  altogether  in  love 
with  sin,  he  continued  throughout  the  prefatory 
services  and  the  sermon.  But  while  the  Rev.  Stuart 
Williamson,  at  that  time  pastor  of  the  church,  was 
addressing  a  company  of  christians,  seated  at  the 
table  of  the  Lord,  and  celebrating  his  death,  the 
barbed  arrows  of  the  Almighty  reached  his  con- 
science ;  and  he  wished,  (I  quote  substantially,  if 
not  precisely  his  words  to  me,)  to  be  under  the  pave- 
ment of  the  church,  or  in  any  other  place  which 
would  conceal  him.  From  that  time,  he  ceased  to 
be  at  "  ease  in  Zion  ;"  he  read,  he  prayed,  he  medi- 
tated;  but  ashamed  of  the  cause  of  his  distress,  he 
communicated  his  state  of  mind  to  no  one,  not  even 
to  his  pious  wife.  But  that  he  had  "  tasted  the  pow- 
ers of  the  world  to  come,"^  was  soon  discovered ;  and 
the  manner  of  the  discovery  affected  his  feelings 
powerfully  the  very  last  time  I  heard  him  allude  to 
it,  although  eighteen  years  had  elapsed  since  the 
occurrence.  He  had  retired  to  his  chamber  to  ask 
relief  from  him  that  "  giveth  liberally  to  all  men  and 
upbraideth  not  ^"  but  contrary  to  his  custom  on  those 


116 

occasions,  neglected  to  lock  his  door ;  and  whilst  on 
his  knees,  engaged  in  importunate  prayer,  Mrs.  Duf- 
field  entered  the  room,  saw  him,  and  comprehended 
the  whole  matter,  threw  herself  upon  his  neck,  and 
bathed  it  with  tears  of  joy.  He  no  longer  attempt- 
ed to  conceal  his  convictions  of  sin,  but  continued 
to  seek  deliverance  from  condemnation  on  account 
of  it,  until  he  found  that  Saviour  of  whom  Moses  in 
the  law  and  the  prophets  did  write.  In  the  autumn 
of  the  same  year,  he  was  admitted  to  full  standing 
in  the  church  in  which  he  first  trembled  under  the 
terrors  of  God's  violated  law;  and  in  the  succeeding 
year  he  was  elected  ruling  elder  by  the  congrega- 
tion, and  solemnly  set  apart  for  that  office  accord- 
ing to  the  form  of  frovernment  of  the  Presbyterian 
church.  It  cannot  be  improper  to  remark  in  this 
place,  that  after  having  investigated  the  subject,  he 
considered  the  government  of  that  branch  of  the 
christian  church  to  which  he  attached  himself,  as 
not  only  expedient,  but  most  conformable  to  scrip- 
tural warrant:  that  he  cordially  received  her  doc- 
trines, and  greatly  admired  the  simplicity  of  her 
worship. 

Mr.  Duffield  had  great  energy  of  character — 
whatsoever  his  hands  found  to  do,  he  did  it  with 
his  might.  He  counted  the  cost  of  following  Christ, 
before  he  assumed  his  cross  ;  and  he  not  only  at- 
tempted the  crucifixion  of  every  lust,  but  as  soon  as 
he  had  obtained  a  good  hope  through  grace,  he  en- 
deavoured to  walk  in  all  God's  statutes  and  ordinan- 
ces blameless. 


117 

Convinced  that  family  worship  is  a  duty  in  every 
christian  household,  he  instituted  it  very  soon  after 
he  became  a  follower  of  Christ.  In  a  confidential  con- 
versation upon  the  subject,  he  said  that  when  he  com- 
menced family  worship,  he  used  a  form  of  prayer. 
Because  of  his  fluency,  especially  in  prayer,  the  rea- 
son was  inquired  for ;  he  replied,  "  I  was  afraid  to 
trust  my  own  feelings  in  so  solemn  a  service,  and 
even  with  a  book  before  me  I  had  considera- 
ble trouble,  for  tears  almost  blinded  me."  He  did 
not  suppose  that  this  remark  would  be  repeated  or 
even  remembered,  but  what  christian  can  read  it 
without  desiring  feelings  like  those  which  almost 
blinded  him  with  tears  1  On  all  proper  occasions,  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  avow,  that  he  was  on  the  Lord's 
side,  or  to  rebuke  sin,  or  to  exhort  sinners  to  repent- 
ance. In  his  piety,  however,  there  was  nothing  ob- 
trusive or  ostentatious.  His  whole  deportment  exhibit- 
ed the  power  of  faith,  the  effect  of  the  religion  of  the 
heart  upon  the  life;  but  except  in  religious  exercises, 
taking  sweet  counsel  with  christian  friends,  or  dis- 
charging duties  which  weighed  upon  his  conscience, 
his  religion  did  not  discover  itself  in  words.  In  all 
his  domestic  relations,  he  was  most  exemplary.  As  a 
master,  a  father,  a  husband,  he  was  indulgent,  affec- 
tionate, tender;  but  in  all  matters  of  duty,  as  the 
government  of  his  family  was  regarded,  he  was  un- 
compromising. I  know  not  how  often  he  has  re- 
minded me  of  the  resolution  of  good  old  Joshua. 
"  As  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord." 
This  sketch  cannot  show  his  moral  influence  upon 


118 

the  community  to  which  he  belonged:  and  the  ser- 
vices which  he  rendered  to  that  little  flock  of  which 
he  was  a  member  and  an  officer,  will  never  be  duly 
appreciated  by  those  of  them  who  survive  him, 
until  the  coming  of  the  great  day,  "  for  which  all 
other  days  were  made." 

As  a  ruling  elder,  he  magnified  his  office.  When 
duty  required  and  circumstances  permitted  it,  he 
never  failed  to  attend  the  judicatories  of  the  church; 
and  as  a  member  of  the  session,  or  a  representative 
of  a  portion  of  the  church  in  the  higher  ecclesiasti- 
cal courts,  he  promptly  contributed  his  aid  to  the  cor- 
rection of  whatever  he  considered  amiss,  whether  in 
doctrine  or  discipline.  He  loved  the  Catholic  church, 
but  the  congregation  with  which  he  was  more  imme- 
diately connected,  was  most  dear  to  him.  For  the 
church  in  Snowhill,  he  laboured  indefatigably  and 
prayed  frequently  and  fervently.  From  the  death  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Williamson  in  1814,  until  1818,  the 
church  had  no  pastor,  and  was  favoured  with  only 
occasional  and  unfrequent  supplies.  During  that 
period,  the  church  was  regularly  opened  for  public 
worship,  and  the  services  (prayer,  praise,  and  the 
reading  of  a  sermon,)  were  conducted  by  the  ses- 
sion. Unless  unavoidably  prevented,  Mr.  Duffield 
always  appeared  in  the  desk  on  those  occasions. 
Many  profitable  sermons,  and  many  fervent  prayers 
have  I  heard  from  his  lips,  although  he  was  no 
preacher;  and  in  the  discharge  of  this  duty  to  the 
church,  he  continued  faithful  until  the  end  of  his 
life.    I  have  seen  him  in  very  feeble  health,  his  breast 


119 

so  much  diseased,  that  he  could  not  sing  the  praises 
of  his  Maker,  in  which  he  took  great  pleasure — go 
into  the  desk  and  perform  all  the  services.  He  said 
those  services  were  "inexpressibly  sweet"  to  him. 
In  prayer-meetings  he  greatly  delighted.  For  many 
years  his  house  was  regularly  opened  to  all  who 
chose  to  attend  a  meeting  for  social  prayer ;  he 
generally  conducted  the  exercises,  and  in  a  most  ac- 
ceptable manner.  This  was  the  case  at  the  time  of 
his  death.  The  last  time  the  congregation  which 
had  selected  him  for  an  overseer,  heard  his  voice, 
was  at  a  prayer-meeting  at  the  house  of  a  member 
of  the  church,  Thursday  evening,  the  14th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1830.  He  had  directed  the  meeting;  had  called 
upon  such  of  his  brethren  as  he  chose  to  select  for 
that  purpose  to  lead  in  prayer;  had  read  the  sixth 
chapter  of  Matthew  ;  and  exhorted  the  christians 
present  to  avail  themselves  of  their  christian  privi- 
leges ;  to  spend  more  time  in  prayer  and  communion 
with  God,  because  with  him  the  prayers  of  christians 
were  prevalent  and  coiild  effect  wonders,  even  the 
building  up  of  believers  in  their  most  holy  faith,  and 
the  conversion  of  sinners.  After  he  had  announced 
that  the  services  would  be  concluded  with  the  sing- 
ing of  the  84th  hymn  of  Dr.  Watts'  second  book, 
his  respiration  became  so  much  embarrassed,  that  he 
was  unable  to  read  the  hymn  ;  he  handed  the  book  to 
a  friend,  left  the  room,  and  never  again  appeared  in 
a  worshipping  assembly. 

The  disease  which  caused  Mr.  DufField's  death  was 
gout.     It  had  preyed  upon  him  for  many  years,  and 


120 

had  assailed  his  whole  body ;  its  attacks  were  ago- 
nizing, and  towards  the  end  of  his  life  became  quite 
frequent.  In  the  month  of  August,  1830,  when  his 
recovery  from  the  attack  which  preceded  his  last 
sickness,  had  just  commenced,  he  was  visited  by  a 
christian  brother.  It  was  the  Sabbath,  and  he  seem- 
ed in  the  spirit  on  the  Lord's  day.  The  love  of  God, 
the  salvation  of  souls,  and  the  prosperity  of  the 
church  constituted  the  burden  of  his  thoughts,  and 
the  subject  of  his  conversation.  His  attention  was 
called  to  a  piece  of  soothing  poetry ;  he  read  it  at- 
tentively, and  when  he  had  finished  it,  remarked  with 
swimming  eyes,  "  it  has  gratified  me  much."  He 
proceeded  to  exhort  his  visiter  to  be  more  faithful  to 
the  church  than  he  had  been ;  he  said  he  had  en- 
deavoured to  serve  the  church,  but  at  that  time,  when 
he  was  aware  that  he  had  nearly  done  with  the 
church  on  earth,  he  felt  that  he  had  not  done  all  his 
duty,  and  that  he  could  then  only  repent  of  his  bar- 
renness. 

The  mind  of  Mr.  Duffield  was  of  a  superior  order, 
and  he  was  unusually  fond  of  books.  The  Bible  he 
read  diligently,  and  Scott's  Commentary  was  a  fa- 
vourite work  with  him.  To  the  inquiry  of  a  friend, 
as  to  his  seasons  of  devotion,  his  answer  was,  that 
he  was  an  early  riser,  and  spent  an  hour  in  the  morn- 
ing reading  the  scriptures,  in  self-examination  and 
prayer,  and  employed  an  hour  in  the  evening  in  the 
same  manner.  He  was  a  happy  man !  The  sum- 
mer before  his  death,  whilst  making  some  arrange- 
ments as  to  his  property,  in  anticipation  of  that  event, 


121 

he  was  asked  abruptly:  ''Are  you  afraid  to  die?" 
"  Not  at  all,"  was  his  answer.  He  proceeded  to  say, 
he  did  not  know  how  fearfully  he  might  be  assaulted 
when  engaged  in  the  last  conflict,  but  no  fears  of  it 
disturbed  him — he  was  kept  in  peace.  Such  was  the 
state  of  his  mind  for  many  years,  indeed  almost 
throughout  his  christian  life.  Gloomy  or  rapturous 
seasons  were  not  frequent  with  him — superior  spiri- 
tual enjoyment  he  would  call  "  a  sweet  season,"  or 
characterize  it  by  some  similar  term.  I  believe  that 
in  most  cases,  just  in  proportion  as  a  christian  is 
careful  not  only  to  forsake  every  known  sin,  but  also 
to  discharge  every  known  duty,  however  mortifying 
to  the  flesh,  just  in  that  proportion  will  his  life  and 
death  be  peaceful  and  happy.  Such  was  the  case 
with  the  subject  of  this  memoir.  His  death-bed  re- 
sembled his  Kfe :  both  were  peaceful.  After  his  con- 
finement few  were  permitted  to  see  him,  for  talking 
increased  his  sufferings,  and  he  was  urged  by  his 
medical  attendants  to  converse  as  little  as  possible. 
To  one  of  them  he  said,  "  my  suflferings  have  been 
very  great,  but  I  trust  I  have  not  murmured,  and 
hope  I  shall  not  be  permitted  to  murmur.  Jesus  is 
all  my  hope — in  him  with  all  my  imperfections,  I 
shall  be  received.  I  have  not  a  doubt  or  fear  as  to 
my  acceptance  with  God."  His  suflferings  were  not 
prolonged  ;  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  October  the 
24th,  1830,  he  "breathed  his  hfe  out,"  and  left  a 
world  of  sin  and  sorrow  for  "  a  better  country,  even 
a  heavenly."  On  the  afternoon  of  Monday,  an  ap- 
propriate sermon  was  preached  to  a  mourning  con- 
11 


122 

gregation  from  Job  xiv.  1,  by  the  Rev.  Alexander 
Campbell,  and  his  body  committed  to  the  earth, 
within  a  few  feet  of  that  church  which  he  loved  so 
much,  and  in  which  he  laboured  so  faithfully.  Thus 
lived  and  died  John  P.  Duffield.  "  Mark  the  perfect 
man;  for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace." 


A    FEW    REMINISCENCES 


125 


A    FEW    REMINISCENCES. 


The  days  of  the  years  of  our  pilgrimage  are  "evil 
and  few."  None  but  the  children  of  God  ever  en- 
joy a  moment  of  peace,  and  although  the  pious  re- 
joice sometimes  with  "joy  unspeakable,"  yet  this 
world  is  to  them  generally,  but  a  vale  of  tears.  To 
look  forward  to  the  end  of  the  dismal  journey,  to 
that  "  point  of  time"  which  will  seal  their  eternal 
destiny,  is  an  awful  business — even  to  some  good 
people  it  is  appalling. 

I  was  thinking  a  little  while  since  about  the  "  Act 
and  Testimony,"  about  the  Convention  of  disorgan- 
izers  at  Pittsburgh,  about  the  war  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian church,  about  Presbyterians  who  would  un- 
church me,  and  about  other  denominations  who 
believe  that  beyond  their  own  party-wall,  there  is 
little  religion,  and  the  thought  crossed  my  mind, 
"  what  importance  will  those  brethren  attach  to  those 
peculiarities  at  the  hour  of  death  ?"  Suppose  you 
that  one  of  them  will  die  rejoicing  in  the  "  Act  and 
Testimony,"  or  in  the  "  Book  of  Common  Prayer," 
or  in  the  Wesleyan  "  Discipline"  ?  I  thought  of  the 
11* 


126 

happy  death-beds  of  some  of  my  friends  of  different 
religious  persuasions,  and  I  could  not  remember  that 
they  said  a  single  word  about  a  party  name. 

I  knew  a  lady,  the  widowed  mother  of  several 
children.  She  had  been  affluent,  but  poverty  and 
blindness  visited  her  about  the  same  lime.  She  had 
a  mind  unusually  strong  and  discriminating,  had 
read  much,  and  was  warmly  attached  to  the  Episco- 
pal church,  to  its  government,  its  rites,  its  liturgy, 
and  to  its  doctrines  according  to  their  literal  mean- 
ing. In  early  life  she  had  devoted  herself  to  God. 
I  believe  for  years  she  was  distressed  with  no  doubts 
as  to  her  interest  in  the  Saviour's  blood ;  indeed  she 
was  satisfied  as  to  the  moment  in  which  she  was 
justified  by  faith.  She  was  not  at  all  superstitious, 
but  the  couplet 

The  Spirit  answers  to  the  blood 
And  tells  me  I  am  born  of  God, 

was  carried  home  to  her  with  great  power.  Chil- 
dren and  husband  and  fortune  were  taken  from  her 
— she  submitted  :  disease  preyed  upon  her  body, — 
she  was  resigned,  knowing  that  her  light  affliction 
would  work  out  for  her  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory ;  day  and  niglit  became  alike 
to  her — she  was  light  in  the  Lord.  After  years  of 
mental  and  corporeal  suffering,  (but  rejoicing  all  the 
while  in  hope)  she  met  the  king  of  terrors  without  a 
single  fear,  as  to  the  result  of  the  conflict;  and  hav- 
ing committed  her  two  surviving  daughters  to  God 
in  prayers,  not  only  fervent,  but  more  pertinent  than 


127 

any  that  can  be  found  in  the  "  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,"  she  fell  asleep.  She  could  repeat  a  large 
portion  of  the  Psalter,  and  perhaps  the  whole  of  the 
morning  and  evening  services  of  the  Episcopal 
church.  I  love  to  think  of  her  daughters.  They 
were  left  very  young,  and  almost  friendless,  but  they 
will  never  be  forsaken,  nor  beg  their  bread ;  the  truth 
is,  their  mother  invested  their  inheritance  in  the  safest 
stock  in  the  universe  of  God ! 

I  knew  another  widowed  mother  of  several  chil- 
dren, whom  she  endeavoured  to  rear  "  in  the  nur- 
ture and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  She  was  from 
principle  a  Presbyterian,  although  baptized  and  edu- 
cated in  a  different  branch  of  the  church  of  Christ. 
I  have  seen  her  reading  the  scriptures  to  her  chil- 
dren weeping  as  she  read — I  have  seen  her  examin- 
ing her  household  on  Sabbath  evenings  as  to  their 
acquaintance  with  Bible  truth,  and  especially  of  that 
summary  of  its  doctrines  which  is  contained  in  the 
Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism.  She  was  more  anx- 
ious to  depart  and  be  w^ith  Christ,  than  any  child  of 
the  kingdom  I  have  ever  knov/n.  I  saw  her  on  one 
occasion,  when  a  son  who  had  visited  her  was  about 
to  leave  her,  remove  her  cap,  clip  a  lock  of  hair, 
which  with  some  gold  she  handed  to  him,  saying  in 
substance,  "  My  child  !  I  am  about  to  die — make  of 
these  something  in  memory  of  your  mother."  She 
w^as  then  in  health  apparently  as  good  as  usual,  and 
although  that  son  saw  her  again  very  soon,  she  was 
on  her  death-bed.  She  walked  in  the  garden  on  an 
evening  shortly  after  the  former  interview,  was  over- 


128 

heard  by  the  family  bidding  farewell  to  the  setting 
sun,  returned  to  her  chamber  and  her  bed,  which  she 
did  not  leave  until  she  exchanged  it  for  a  coffin.  She 
expressed  no  wish  during  her  confinement  but  to  be 
absent  from  the  body,  that  she  might  be  present  with 
the  Lord. 

I  knew  another  son  of  her's.  He  was  rarely  en- 
dowed. When  a  little  more  than  fourteen  years  old, 
he  had  qualified  himself  for  studying  one  of  the  learn- 
ed professions.  He  was  wondered  at  by  all  his  ac- 
quaintances, and  doated  upon  by  his  friends.  He 
had  been  reared  upon  the  plan  of  Eunice  the  mother 
of  Timothy,  and  his  death,  according  to  human  spe- 
culation, was  as  premature  as  his  mind  was  preco- 
cious.    After  a  sickness  of  a  few  weeks,  he  said. 

See  truth,  tove,  and  mercy,  in  triumph  descending", 
And  nature  all  glowing-  in  Eden's  first  bloom, 

On  the  cold  cheek  of  death,  smiles  and  roses  are  blending. 
And  beauty  immortal  awakes  from,  the  tomb  ; 

and  died  ! 

I  loved  a  young  lady  who  had  been  the  compan- 
ion of  my  boyhood — I  loved  her  because  she  was 
amiable,  but  my  love  was  that  of  a  friend.  Not- 
withstanding, humanly  speaking,  she  was  so  good, 
yet,  until  about  eighteen  months  before  her  death, 
she  was  entirely  careless  about  her  eternal  interests. 
There  was  at  the  time  of  which  I  am  thinking,  much 
excitement  in  the  Presb^^terian  church  of  the  village 
in  which  she  lived  ;  many  were  anxious  about  their 
souls,  some  of  whom  still  adorn  their  profession  by  a 
w^alk  and  conversation  which  become  the  gospel  of 


129 

Christ,  and  some  have  gone  to  glory.  On  a  week- 
day evening,  there  was  a  meeting  for  prayer  and  in- 
quiry at  the  house  of  an  elder  of  the  church,  and  a 
Presbyterian  clergyman  conducted  it.  An  elder  sis- 
ter of  the  young  lady  about  whom  I  write,  who  was 
eminently  pious,  and  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
church,  attended  the  meeting.  The  clergyman,  who 
knew  her  character,  asked  her  some  question  which 
I  did  not  hear  distinctly:  she  said  "my  sister,"  and 
burst  into  tears.  I  soon  discovered  that  she  consi- 
dered her  sister  not  only  careless,  but  in  a  hopeless 
condition.  Her  adviser  told  her  to  pray  for  her,  and 
not  to  despair.  He  asked  her  if  she  did  not  remember 
the  woman  who  continued  to  pray  to  our  Saviour, 
and  whose  prayer  was  granted,  although  he  had 
called  her  a  "  dog"  ?  Very  few  hours  elapsed  before 
I  saw  that  careless,  hardened  sister  at  a  similar  meet- 
ing, and  in  very  few  hours  more,  she  was  on  the 
side  of  the  people  of  God.  She  was  introduced  to 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  Presbyterian  and  Metho- 
dist instrumentality,  but  she  was  from  that  time  a 
zealous,  indeed  an  ardent  EpiscopaUan.  I  was  near 
her  w^lien  she  died — I  watched  her  dead  body.  Her 
death  was  a  glorious  death !  Her  attendants  had 
supposed  for  some  time,  that  the  agony,  except  the 
last  gasp,  was  finished :  suddenly,  a  smile  so  radiant 
lighted  up  her  face,  that  they  thought  she  would 
laugh  aloud  :  "  Beautiful !  beautiful !"  (said  she  with 
great  emphasis)  "/see  angels!  Father,  forgive  my 
sins  for  Jesus's  sake" — and  breathed  her  life  out. 
I  have  spoken  oT  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians 


130 

— I  write  now  of  a  Methodist  "  after  the  strictest 
sect,"  and  the  "  leader"  of  a  "  class"  of  members  of 
that  church  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Wesleyan 
Discipline.  He  was  in  very  humble  life,  and  a  poor 
man.  He  had  been  married  a  short  time,  and  was 
the  father  of  one  child.  His  health  had  been  sound, 
he  was  young,  and  his  prospect  for  long  life  was 
good ;  but  "  the  Master"  came  and  called  for  him, 
and  he  willingly  obeyed  the  summions.  A  little  while 
before  the  occurrence  of  the  few  incidents  which  I 
shall  notice,  one  of  his  neighbours  had  been  convinc- 
ed of  sin,  and  had  for  several  days  endured  horrible 
sufferings  on  account  of  it ;  whilst  the  subject  of  this 
notice  was  praying  "  with  him  and  for  him"  under  a 
crah-tree,  he  experienced  that  "peace  of  God,  which 
passeth  all  understandings^."  A  little  while  before  his 
death,  (his  disease  was  short  and  violent,  but  did  not 
affect  his  mind  at  all)  whilst  surrounded  by  rela- 
tives and  friends,  that  neighbour  entered  his  house, 
and  found  him  in  fine  spirits.  "Ah!  brother  D — " 
said  he,  "  I  have  not  forgotten  the  crab-tree."  Soon 
after  another  neighbour  was  added  to  the  company. 
"  Brother  B — ,"  was  his  salutation,  "I  am  glad  to 
see  you — I  was  about  to  send  for  you.  I  wish  you 
to  make  my  coffin,  and  to  have  me  decently  buried 
in  the  yard  of  the  little  meeting-house  where  we  have 
had  so  many  good  meethgs.^^  His  friends  and  family 
wept  much:  "Do  not  distress  yourselves  on  my  ac- 
count," said  he,  "  I  am  as  happy  as  I  now  wish  to 
be,  but  I  shall  soon  be  a  great  deal  happier."  His 
weeping  wife  then  seated  herself  beside  his  bed,  and 


131 

held  up  in  his  view  their  infant ;  the  trial  was  a  sore 
one,  and  he  felt  it;  but  he  triumphed,  and  sung  with 
great  animation, 

"  Hinder  me  notf 
For  I  will  serve  God,  and  praise  him  when  I  die," 

and  soon  afterwards  passed  over  Jordan. 


READER! 


ARE  TOU 


ASHAMED    OF    CHRIST, 


HIS  WORDS? 


12 


I3& 


ARE    YOU 
ASHAMED   OF   CHRIST? 


"  For  whosoever  shall  be  ashamed  of  me,  and  of  my  words,  of  him  shall  the 
Son  of  man  be  ashamed  when  he  shall  come  in  his  own  gloiy,  and  in  his  Fath- 
er's, and  of  the  holy  angels."— XziAe  ix.  26. 


The  Bible  recognises  two  kinds  of  shame ;  one  is 
the  effect  of  "  repentance  towards  God  ;"*  the  other 
is  produced  by  that  pride  which  not  only  lives  but 
reigns  in  the  heart  of  every  unconverted  child  of 
Adam.  The  former  kind  is  illustrated,  Dan.  ix.  8. 
O  Lord,  to  us  belongeth  confusion  of  face,  to  our 
kings,  to  our  princes,  and  to  our  fathers,  because  we 
have  sinned  against  thee :  the  latter  kind,  is  denounc- 
ed by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Luke  ix.  26 :  For  who- 
soever shall  be  ashamed  of  me,  and  of  my  words, 
of  him  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  ashamed  when  he 
shall  come  in  his  own  glory,  and  in  his  Father's,  and 
of  the  holy  angels.  Pride,  the  parent  of  the  shame 
denounced  by  our  Lord,  is  the  great  enemy  of  God  in 

*  Acts  XX.  2K 


136 

the  human  heart ;  and  whilst  it  reigns  there,  in  vaiii 
may  Christ "  stand  at  the  door  and  knock,"*  for  the 
strong  man  will  not  permit  his  admission,  lest  he 
should  spoil  his  goods.  Reader!  is  this  your  case? 
Does  not  the  consideration  appal  you,  that  that  pride, 
which  exalteth  itself  against  every  thing  that  "  is 
called  God,"t  should  exclude  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
from  your  heart ;  should  prevent  the  renewing  influ- 
ences of  his  Spirit,  and  the  apphcation  of  his  blood 
(which  cleanseth  from  all  sinj)  to  your  conscience? 
But  this  is  not  the  whole  amount  of  the  evil.  Unless 
the  pride  which  reigns  in  your  heart  be  crucified, 
you  will  continue  ashamed  of  Christ  and  of  his  words 
until  death  overtakes  you,  and  then  you  must  be 
turned  into  hell  with  all  the  nations  that  forget  God.§ 
But  why  will  you  continue  the  slave  of  pride,  when 
"  without  money  and  without  price,"||  you  may  be- 
come the  "free  man"  of  Christ  ^Tl  Has  not  pride 
destroyed  the  lives  of  millions  of  our  race  ?  May 
we  not  with  fear  and  trembling  suggest  the  appre- 
hension, that  multitudes  of  souls  are  now  involved  in 
"  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever,"**  because  they 
were  ashamed  of  Christ  and  of  his  words  ?  Pride 
has  desolated  the  very  garden  of  God,  and  crucified 
God's  only  begotten  Son,  notwithstanding  which, 
you  prefer  obedience  to  it  "  and  the  pains  of  hell 
for  ever,"  rather  than  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  the 
blessings  which  accompany  it,  "righteousness  and 

*  Rev.  iii.  20.  f  2  Thess.  ii.  4.  #1  John  i.  7. 

§  Ps.  ix.  17.  11  Isa.  Iv.  1.  1 1  Cor.  vii.  22. 

**  Jude  17. 


137 

peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."*  Does  not  your 
conscience  admonish  you  as  you  read  this,  that  pride 
makes  you  ashamed  of  Christ  ?  Neither  feign  nor 
conjure  nor  concert  excuses :  confess  your  guilt,  and 
repent  of  it,  and  thus  pursue  a  course  worthy  of  an 
immortal  being.  With  pride  reigning  in  your  heart, 
heaven  can  never  be  your  portion,  and  God  has  re- 
vealed to  man  no  manner  in  which  it  can  be  cruci- 
fied, save  on  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
upon  which  every  christian  indeed  is  crucified  to  the 
world  and  the  world  is  crucified  to  every  christian.f 
But  why  are  you  ashamed  of  the  cross  ?  Would  you 
writhe  under  the  sneers  and  taunts  of  your  ungodly 
acquaintances  ?  Now  all  who  would  live  godly  in 
Christ  Jesus,  are  warned  that  they  may  expect  per- 
secution.]; and  it  is  a  m.erciful  discipline  by  which 
God's  children  are  made  humble :  but  let  the  scoffer 
continue  to  scoflf',  it  can  do  you  no  real  injury,  and 
cannot  long  continue  ;  for  very  soon  his  eye  will  be- 
come glazed,  his  brow  will  be  horribly  ravaged,  and 
his  tongue  will  be  as  quiet  as  silence  itself,  and  as 
clammy  as  a  grave-worm.  Moreover,  the  reproach- 
es of  the  enemies  of  God  cannot  annoy  you  long, 
for  they  will  not  reach  your  ear  when  it  is  so  "dull 
and  cold"  that  it  cannot  be  grated  by  the  screaking 
of  a  coflin  screw  within  a  few  inches  of  its  drum. 
Oh !  where  will  you  be  then  I  If  you  continue  ashamed 
of  Christ,  your  place  will  certainly  be  the  lake  that 
"  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone,"§  and  your  com- 

*  Romans  xiv.  17.  f  Gal.  vi.  14. 

^  2  Tim.  iii.  12.  §  Rev.  xxi.  8. 

12* 


138 

panions  devils  and  damned  spirits.  Reflect  upon  the 
threatening  contained  in  the  verse  already  quoted 
from  the  gospel  of  Luke :  of  all  such  as  are  asham- 
ed of  Christ  in  this  world,  will  he  be  ashamed  when 
he  comes  in  his  own  glory,  and  his  Father's,  and  of 
the  holy  angels,  "  to  judge  all  the  dead,  small  and 
great,"*  and  in  vain  will  they  call  on  mountains  and 
rocks  to  fall  on  them  and  hide  them  from  Him  that 
sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  from  the  wrath  of  the 
Lamb,  for  the  great  day  of  His  wrath  will  have 
then  come.f  If  your  soul  w^ere  separated  from  your 
body  at  this  instant,  would  you  be  found  interested 
in  the  cross  of  Christ  and  in  his  blood  and  righte- 
ousness? Let  your  conscience  answer,  and  it  will 
accuse  you  or  else  excuse  you.J  Assume  the  cross 
of  Christ  then  for  your  soul's  sake,  for  Christ's  sake, 
and  let  grace  make  you  a  child  of  God  "  by  the 
washing  of  regeneration  and  the  renewing  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."§ 

But  you  are  guilty  of  the  blackest  ingratitude  in 
permitting  yourself  to  be  ashamed.  Has  not  God 
loaded  you  with  benefits  ?  Has  He  not  crowned  all 
of  your  years  with  his  goodness  ?||  For  many  years 
when  there  was  but  "  a  step  between  you  and  death," 
has  he  not  prevented  you  from  falling  into  hell?  And 
yet  you  are  ashamed  of  his  only  begotten  Son,  eith- 
er to  follow  him  or  to  be  called  by  his  name.  But 
your  pride  may  perhaps  suggest,  that  it  is  incompa- 


*  Rev.  XX.  12.  f  Rev.  vi.  16.  t  Romans  ii.  15. 

§  Titus  iii.  5.  |1  Ps.  Ixv.  11. 


139 

tible  with  the  dignity  of  your  nature  that  that  man 
should  reign  over  you,  who  was  cradled  in  a  man- 
ger, the  reputed  son  of  a  carpenter,  who  was  so  poor 
that  he  had  "  not  where  to  lay  his  head,"*  who  was 
mocked,  buffeted,  spit  upon,  crowned  with  thorns, 
and  crucified  between  two  thieves.f  Let  me  remind 
you  that  although  he  w^as  "  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart,"J  from  the  time  of  his  birth  until  Joseph  of 
Arimathea  begged  his  body  of  Pilate  and  "  wrapped 
it  in  a  clean  linen  cloth  and  laid  it  in  his  own  new 
tomb,"§  yet  "  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host"  re- 
joiced at  his  nativity  ;||  the  glory  of  God  shone  round 
about  those  to  whom  that  blessed  intelligence  was 
communicated,  and  a  star  pointed  out  his  humble 
birth-place.^  It  is  true  he  was  poor,  but  he  had 
been  rich,  for  the  treasures  of  the  universe  had  been 
his.  Reader,  do  you  know  why  he  became  poor  ? 
"  He  who  was  rich  for  ijour  sake  became  poor,  that 
you,  through  his  poverty,  might  be  rich  "**  For 
your  sake  his  soul  was  "  exceeding  sorrowful ;"  for 
your  sake  he  w^as  agonized,  "  and  his  sweat  was  as 
it  were  great  drops  of  blood  falling  down  to  the 
ground  ;"tt  ^"d  that  you  might  live,  "  he  bowed  his 
head  and  gave  up  the  ghost."JJ  He  has  opened  "  a 
new  and  living  way"§§  in  which  God  can  be  just 
and  yet  justify  the  chief  of  sinners,  and  in  him  all 
the  promises  are  "  yea  and  amen."|||l 

*  Malt.  viii.  20.  f  Matt,  xxvii.  38.  \  Matt.  xi.  29. 

§  Matt,  xxvii.  59,  60.  ||  Luke  ii.  t  Matt.  ii. 

*»  2  Cor.  viii.  9.  ff  Luke  xxii.  44.  t+  John  xix.  30. 

§§Heb.  X.  20.  I  a  2  Cor.  i.  20. 


140 

"  Did  pity  ever  stoop  so  low, 

Dress'd  in  divinity  and  blood  ? 
Was  ever  rebel  courted  so. 

In  g-roans  of  an  expiring-  God! 
And  yet  you  are  ashamed  of  him !" 

But  perhaps,  reader,  you  may  have  declared  by  a 
public  act,  that  you  will  follow  Christ — j^ou  may 
have  professed  his  name  publicly  in  words  or  by 
participating  in  one  or  both  of  the  sealing  ordinan- 
ces of  his  church :  be  not  deceived^  for  still  you  may 
be  ashamed  of  him.  The  injunction  of  our  blessed 
Saviour  is  to  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  him,  (not 
monthly,  nor  semi-annually,)  but  "  daily."*  You 
may  meet  the  people  of  God  periodically,  and  unite 
with  them  in  commemorating  the  Redeemer's  death 
by  the  eating  of  bread  and  drinking  of  wine,  and, 
notw^ithstanding,  show  that  you  are  ashamed  of  him 
each  day  that  intervenes  between  the  celebration  of 
that  "  feast  of  fat  things."f  As  the  name  of  Christ 
may  be  professed  by  a  single  act  without  a  single 
word,  in.  the  same  way  may  it  be  denied — you  need 
not  "  curse  and  swear,"J  to  show  that  you  are 
ashamed  of  it.  If  you  be  a  christian,  you  cannot 
live  in  the  habitual  commission  of  any  knowai  sin,  or 
omission  of  any  known  duty.  Do  you  not  "restrain 
prayer  before  God,"§  because  you  are  ashamed  to 
be  seen  engaged  in  that  duty?  Do  you  not  permit 
the  name  of  God  to  be  profaned  in  your  presence 
without  exhortation    or   rebuke,   because    you   are 

*  Lruke  ix.  23.  f  Isa.  xxr.  6. 

i  Matt.  xxvi.  74.  §  Job  xv.  4.. 


141 

ashamed  to  declare  that  you  are  "on  the  Lord's 
side?"  Are  you  a  parent?  Have  you  endeavoured 
to  lead  your  children  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus  ?*  have  you  prayed  with  them  and  for 
them  ?  Are  you  at  the  head  of  a  family?  Are  your 
walk  and  conversation  so  ordered,  that  every  mem- 
ber of  it  may  take  knowledge  of  you,  that  you  have 
been  with  Jesus  and  learned  of  him  ?  Does  shame 
restrain  you  from  the  performance  of  no  christian 
duty  to  your  family  or  any  one  of  its  members? 
Does  your  whole  deportment  say  at  all  times  to  your 
household,  "  as  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve 
the  Lord"  ?t  Do  your  children,  your  servants,  and 
your  visiters  hear  you  ask  the  blessing  of  God  upon 
the  provisions  of  your  table  ;  and  do  they  hear  you 
at  your  family  altar  praising  God  for  his  goodness, 
and  beseeching  his  blessing  upon  your  house  ?  What 
are  your  relations  with  your  neighbourhood?  Would 
your  opinions  and  example  influence  the  opinions 
and  practice  of  others  ?  Are  you  not  ashamed  to 
let  them  see  you  following  Christ  through  good  re- 
port and  bad  report  ?  Do  you  at  all  proper  times, 
both  by  precept  and  example,  recommend  his  reh- 
gion,  and  do  your  words  and  actions  say,  "  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  for  it  is  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  ?"J  We  are  supposing  you  a 
member  of  Christ's  visible  church.  Are  your  pro- 
fessions and  practice  consistent?  Even  under  the 
dispensation  of  the  law  to  the  Jews,  David  was 
*'  glad"§  to  visit  the  house  of  God,  and  said,  "  if  I 

*  Eph.  iv.  21.    t  Jos.  xxiv.  15.    ^  2  Tim.  i.  12.     §  Ps.  cxxii.  1. 


142 

forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  (the  place  where  *  prayer 
was  wont  to  be  made,')  let  my  right  hand  forget  her 
cunning  ;"*  and  even  then  "  they  that  feared  the 
Lord,  spake  often  one  to  another."  But  I  will  refer 
you  to  the  last  three  verses  of  the  third  chapter  of 
the  prophecy  of  Malachi,  from  the  first  of  which  1 
make  the  last  quotation.  Read  iliem — they  contain 
important  matter!  But  since  life  and  immortality 
have  been  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel,  christians 
are  enjoined  not  to  forsake  "the  assembling  of  them- 
selves together,"  but  to  exhort  one  another  daily;  to 
"  pray  without  ceasing ;"  "that  prayers,  supplica- 
tions and  giving  of  thanks  be  made  for  all  men ;  to 
teach  and  admonish  one  another  in  psalms  and  hymns 
and  spiritual  songs  ;"t  and  Christ  himself  graciously 
promises  that  when  even  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  his  name,  he  will  be  there  and  bless 
them.  Do  you  love  the  assemblies  of  God's  saints? 
or  when  you  assemble  with  them,  are  you  ashamed 
to  bend  your  knees  or  close  your  eyes  in  prayer,  lest 
an  ungodly  witness  should  say,  "■  behold  !  he  pray- 
eth"?  After  the  resurrection  of  our  Saviour,  his 
disciples  met  in  one  place,  notwithstanding  they  clos- 
ed the  doors  for  fear  of  the  Jews  (not  because  they 
feared  the  ridicule  of  the  Jews.)  and  he  appeared  in 
their  midst  "  and  showed  them  his  hands  and  his 
feet."J  Do  you  forbear  to  meet  with  the  people  of 
God  for  his  worship,  because  you  fear  this  derision 

*  Ps.  cxxxvH.  5.         t  Heb.  x.  25,  and  iii.  13.     1  Thes.  v.  17- 
1  Tim.  ii.  1.     Col.  iii.  16.  i,  Luke  xxiv.  40.. 


143 

of  wicked  men?  Then  be  it  known  to  you,  you  are 
ashan>ed  of  Christ ! 

Perhaps  you  might  be  able  t©  render  some  ser- 
vice to  that  branch  of  the  church  with  which  you 
are  connected — to  discharge  some  duty,  to  fill  some 
office  which  might  promote  its  interest.  Do  you 
withhold  your  services  because  you  are  ashamed  to 
render  them  ?  David,  who  was  a  king,  was  willing, 
if  duty  required  it,  to  be  "  a  door-keeper"*  in  the 
house  of  God,  and  if  you  will  examine  the  scrip- 
tures, you  will  ascertain  that  that  was  an  humble 
office  in  the  Jewish  church. 

Perhaps  you  may  consider  God's  dealings  with 
you  remarkable,  and  that  your  conversion  is  a  w^on- 
derful  manifestation  of  divine  grace.  Would  the 
communication  of  your  spiritual  conflicts  and  en- 
couragements, and  the  ultimate  triumph  of  grace, 
comfort  or  assist  others  who  tell  you  they  are  suffer- 
ing under  the  frowns  of  an  angry  God,  (as  you  know 
you  have  suffered)  and  are  you  ashamed  to  tell  them 
w^hat  had  been  your  condition? — of  your  horrible 
anticipations,  of  the  pangs  of  your  repentance,  of 
your  darkness  and  uncertainty,  and  of  the  "joy  and 
peace  in  believing,"f  which  you  experienced  when 
you  had  found  that  Saviour  "  of  whom  Moses  in  the 
law  and  the  prophets  did  write"  ?  Now  understand 
me  upon  this  subject.  No  christian  can  boast  of  his 
religious  experience,  or  intentionally  encourage  con- 
versations upon  religious  subjects,  which  might  lead 

*  Ps.  Ixxxiv.  10.  t  Ro°i-  ^^'"  ^^' 


144 

others  astray;  but  examine  the  lives  of  many  chris- 
tians who  have  Hved  since  the  days  of  the  apos- 
tles, or  consult  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  and  you  will  find  that  very  many  of  the 
people  of  God  in  all  ages  of  the  church,  have  de- 
tailed many  particulars  which  occurred  in  their  pas- 
sage "  from  death  unto  life."  Two  instances  from 
the  scriptures  are  deemed  sufficient.  David  invites 
others  to  come  near  and  he  will  tell  them  what  God 
hath  done  for  his  soul;*  and  St.  Paul  recounts  in 
public,  the  particulars  of  his  conversion.! 

Permit  me  to  make  a  few  suggestions  in  addition 
to  what  I  have  already  said  upon  this  subject.  We 
read  in  the  gospel,  that  Christ  in  the  days  of  his 
flesh,  healed  the  diseases  of  many  sick  persons ; 
palsy  and  leprosy,  and  many  other  diseases  were 
driven  away  by  him  who  has  "  all  power  in  heaven 
and  in  earth."  Amongst  other  miraculous  cures,  we 
read  that  he  opened  the  eyes  of  one  of  age  at  the 
time  of  the  miracle,  who  had  been  born  blind ;  and 
restored  to  health  and  strength,  a  man  who  had  been 
impotent  thirty-and-eight  years,J  If  afterwards  those 
persons  had  been  asked  by  others  afflicted  as  they 
had  been,  "tell  us  how  you  were  relieved,  that  we 
may  resort  to  the  same  remedy  :"  and  the  man  born 
Wind,  ashamed  of  his  benefactor,  had  answered,  "  it 
is  enough  for  you  to  know  that  I  see  plainly :"  and 
the  man  who  had  been  impotent  had  said,  "  excuse 
my  delicacy  ;  the  manner  of  my  cure  is  known  only 

*  Ps.  Ixvi.  16.  f  Acts  xxii.  t  John  v.  and  ix. 


145 

to  my  physician  and  myself" — what  would  be  yom' 
opinion  of  those  persons?  Reader!  if  you  in  truth 
know  the  great  "  Physician,"  and  he  has  healed  you, 
he  has  delivered  you  from  more  awful  bhndness,  and 
freed  you  from  diseases  more  horrible  than  any 
which  can  beset  the  body.  And  can  you  (because 
you  are  ashamed,)  refuse  to  direct  one  spiritually 
bhnd  and  diseased  as  you  once  were,  to  the  only  re- 
medy,— to  the  same  balm  of  Gilead  which  healed 
your  soul,  and  to  the  only  physician  who  can  admi- 
nister that  blessed  medicine  ? 

Reader !  have  you  not  failed  to  perform  some,  or 
all  the  duties  which  I  have  mentioned,  because  you 
are  ashamed  of  Christ  ?  Does  your  own  heart  con- 
demn you?  God  is  greater  than  your  heart,  and  if 
you  die  without  repentance.  He  also  will  condemn 
you! 

I  bid  you  farewell,  and  apprise  you — you  must 
bear  the  cross  of  Christ  with  all  the  shame  that  at- 
taches to  it,  or  in  the  eternal  world  to  which  you  are 
hastening,  you  will  dwell  with  everlasting  burnings. 


13 


SACRED   POETRY. 


149 


SACRED    POETRY. 


O  THAT  IT  WERE  WITH  ME  AS  IN  MONTHS   PAST! 
Tune — "  Highland  Mary." 

Happy  the  time  when  Christ  my  Lord 

Appear'd  from  guilt  to  save  me, 
When  first  I  heard  his  gracious  word  : — 

"  Poor  sinner,  I  forgive  thee." 
A  new  creation  round  me  smiled. 

What  glories  met  together  ! — 
I  felt  that  God  was  reconciled ; 

That  I  might  call  him  Father. 

New  hopes,  new  joys,  my  soul  possessed, 

New  light  upon  me  shining. 
In  Jesus  I  found  perfect  rest, 

And  thought  I'd  ceased  from  sinning : 
How  vain  did  seem  each  earth-born  care! 

Each  earth-born  hope  or  pleasure  ! 
How  poor  did  all  things  else  appear, 

Compared  with  heav'nly  treasure  ! 

13* 


150 

My  soul  o'erflowed  with  love  divine — 

My  mouth  was  filled  with  praises ; 
I  loved  to  call  my  Jesus  mine, 

And  tell  of  all  his  graces. 
Redeeming  love  was  all  my  theme, 

Redeeming  grace  bestowing ; 
Whene'er  I  heard  my  Saviour's  name, 

It  set  my  bosom  glowing 

But  all  those  heavenly  joys  are  flown— 

Because  of  sin  I  languish; 
I  see  my  Saviour  on  me  frown, 

How  keen  my  bosom's  anguish! 
Like  weeping  Peter,  Lord,  I  come. 

Dear  Saviour,  end  my  mourning! 
Receive  a  guilty  wanderer  home — 

O  welcome  me  returning  ! 


THE  PRODIGAL  RETURNING  TO  HIS  FATHER. 

I  will  ai-ise,  and  go  to  my  Father,  and  wiW  say  unto  him  :  Father,  I  have  sin- 
ned against  heaven  and  before  thee,  and  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy 
son  :  make  me  as  one  of  tliy  hired  servants.— Luke  xiv.  18, 19. 


Long  the  ways  of  sin  I've  trod. 

Long  have  walked  the  downv/ard  road, 

Long  rebelled  against  my  God, 

And  sovereign  grace  have  spurn'd, 
Mercy's  calls  I've  all  withstood, 


151 

Trampled  on  redeeming  blood, 
Fearless  of  that  fiery  flood, 

Where  all  the  tares  are  burned. 

Hating  God,  his  word,  his  cause, 
People,  government,  and  laws. 
My  dear  Redeemer,  and  his  cross. 

My  guilt  how  great  its  load ! 
JiOving  sin,  I  scorned  to  pray  ; 
Harder  made  my  heart  each  day  ; 
Wandering  farther  from  the  way 

To  glory  and  to  God. 

Light  now  bursts  upon  my  eyes : 
Now  I  see  with  sad  surprise. 
How  vile  I  am,  and  w^ill  arise. 

And  to  my  Father  go ; 
'•  Father,  I'm  a  wretch  undone! 
For  my  sins  can  ne'er  atone; 
But  the  merits  of  thy  Son, 

Can  save  from  endless  wo.'' 

I  for  Christ  my  Saviour  pant, 

Jesus,  thou  art  all  I  want; 

Be  thou  mine,  and  to  me  grant. 

To  sit  at  thy  dear  feet: 
I  thy  yoke  no  longer  fear, 
I  will  all  thy  burden  bear, 
Wage  with  sin  unceasing  war> 

Dear  Saviour,  I  submit. 


152 
THINE  EYES  SHALL  SEE  THE  KING  IN  HIS  BEAUTY. 

Isaiah   xxxiii.  17. 

All  glorious  is  my  King, 
Immanuel  is  his  name  ! 
His  wondrous  love  I  sing, 

His  wondrous  grace  proclaim; 
'Tis  wondrous  grace  indeed  to  me — 
I,  in  his  beauty,  Jesus  see  1 

Directed  by  his  star, 

A  heavenly  babe  is  found ; 
A  manger  is  his  bed, 

With  swaddling  clothes  he's  bound; 
Transcendant  beauty  here  I  see. 
My  God  assumes  this  form  for  me! 

From  sacred  Olivet, 

What  truth  his  lips  impart! 
Blessings  unnumbered  pledged. 
To  all  the  pure  in  heart : 
Behold  the  grace  !  to  me,  my  God, 
Points  out  the  straight,  the  heavenly  road. 

Astonished  I  behold 

Thy  power.  Almighty  Lord, 
I  see  the  leper  cleansed. 
The  palsied  man  restored, 
"  And  stand  erect !"  Thy  word  he  hears, 
And  to  his  house  his  bed  he  bears : 


153 

The  filmed  eye,  which  ne'er 
Received  a  beam  of  light. 
Is  opened  by  thy  power, 
To  all  the  bliss  of  sight : 
I  see  the  lame  man  leaping  home. 
And  hear  the  praises  of  the  dumb  ! 

E'en  terror's  king  himself, 
Confesses  thee  his  Lord, 
And  yields  his  victim  up, 

Whene'er  he  hears  thy  word: — 
"  Arise  !  come  forth,"  the  dead  revives, 
He  quits  his  shroud — again  he  lives! 

And  yet  thy  love,  my  King, 

Is  equal  to  thy  power, 
My  sympathies  awake  ! 
My  trembling  soul  adore, 
Jesus! — a  man  of  griefs  for  thee, 
The  Godhead's  fulness  bodily. 

How  tender  to  his  friends  ! — 

In  condescension  sweet, 
The  Lord  of  glory  stoops 
To  wash  his  people's  feet! 
Lord,  I  am  all  defiled  with  sin, 
O  wash  me  too  and  make  me  clean. 

What  sorrows  him  beset ! 

What  agony  profound  I 
He  sweat  "  great  drops  of  blood," 

Fast  falling  to  the  ground ! 


154 

And  all  for  me ;  and  watched  and  prayed, 
And  "  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head !" 

But  lo  !  a  crown  of  thorns 
Circles  his  sacred  head ! 
With  robe  and  sceptre  mocked, 
He's  to  the  judgment  led  ; 
Why  is  that  shout? — the  words  decide — 
"  Let  Israel's  King  be  crucified." 

Then  what  terrific  sights, 
My  staring  eyes  appal! 
Stretched  on  a  bloody  cross, 
I  see  the  Lord  of  all, 
Taunted,  reviled,  by  friends  denied. 
Wounded  his  hands,  his  feet,  his  side  1 

Nature  beholds  the  scene. 

With  wonder  and  affright; 
Earth  trembles,  groans,  and  quakes  1 
The  sun  withdraws  his  light ! 
The  temple's  vail  is  rent  in  twain ! 
Dead  saints  arise  and  walk  again  t 

In  agony  he  prays, 

(What  love  and  beauty  too) 
"  Father,  forgive  the  sin. 

They  know  not  what  they  do  f* 
And  "  it  is  finished,"  now  he  cries ! 
And  for  me  bows  his  head  and  dies  1 


155 

But  vain  thy  efforts,  death  1 

Vain  all  thy  mighty  bars ! 

"  The  dead  revives  -again  ;" 

Silenced  be  all  my  fears  ! 

I  now  a  glorious  victory  tell — 

King  Jesus  conquered  death  and  hell ! 

He  rides  upon  a  cloud 

In  sight  of  gazing  friends : 
Open  ye  gates  of  light! 
For  he  to  heaven  ascends ; 
And  there  he  reigns  and  intercedes, 
For  me  and  all  his  people  pleads. 

All  beautiful  to  me, 

As  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King ; 
Let  all  thy  ben  uty  see. 

That  all  thy  grace  may  sing ; 
To  see  thy  beauty  still  there's  room, 
"  And  whosoever  will,  may  come-" 


HYMN 


When,  O  my  God,  my  eyes  survey, 
The  glorious  new  and  Uving  way. 

That  leads  to  bliss  above : 
What  joy,  what  rapture  fills  my  breast- 
I  am  of  heavenly  joys  possessed, 

And  feel  that  God  is  love- 


156 

Ere  sun,  or  moon,  or  star  had  shone,' 
Ere  thou  hadst  bid  a  morning  dawn, 

Or  earth  on  nothing  hung ; 
Ere  thou  hadst  heard  an  angel's  lays, 
Or  burning  seraph  tuned  thy  praise, 

Or  morning  stars  had  sung: 

Ere  Gabriel  before  thee  stood — 
'Twas  in  the  Godhead's  solitude — 

Eternity's  profound, 
Thou  didst  devise  this  "  way"  of  grace, 
And  to  redeem  a  rebel  race, 

A  glorious  ransom  found. 

I  love  to  visit  Bethlehem's  plains. 

To  hear  the  sweet,  the  angelic  strains, 

That  broke  night's  stillness  there;— 
I  join  the  shout — the  enraptured  cry, 
"  All  glory  be  to  God  on  high, 

Immanuel  is  here  !" 

I  love  my  Saviour's  life  to  read ; 
For  all  he  did  and  all  he  said. 

My  thoughts  delight  afford  ; 
What  kings  and  prophets  long'd  to  see. 
Is  graciously  vouchsafed  to  me, 

In  th'  annals  of  my  Lord. 

I  love  to  climb  Mount  Calvary, 
The  friend  of  sinners  there  to  see 
Dying,  though  Lord  of  all ; 


167 

Mine  were  the  sins  that  nailed  him  there, 
Mine  were  the  thorns,  and  mine  the  spear, 
The  vinegar  and  gall. 

Jesus  was  born,  has  suffered,  died, 
His  Father's  law  has  magnified ; 

To  save  our  souls  from  death ; 
Saints,  ye  are  purchased  by  his  blood, 
Then  praise  the  "  way"  that  leads  to  God, 

While  ye  have  life  or  breath. 

Mount  Sinai  once  alarmed  my  soul. 
When  first  I  heard  its  thunders  roll. 

How  dreadful  was  the  place! 
Now  faith  in  Jesus  makes  me  dare — 
Fearless  I  face  its  lightning's  glare. 

And  touch  its  trembling  base. 

Angels  who  knew  not  sin,  may  raise 
To  grace  preserving,  highest  praise, 

And  swell  the  shouts  above  ; 
Let  Gabriel  keep  his  harp,  for  we 
Will  sing  a  sweeter  song  than  he — 

We'll  sing  redeeming  love. 


HE  SHOWED  THEM  HIS  HANDS  AND  HIS  FEET, 
Luke    xxiv.    40. 

Arouse  my  soul  and  sing  his  praise 
Whose  goodness  smiles  on  all  my  days, 

And  blesses  all  my  store; 
14 


158 

Praise  him  for  all  that  he  has  done — 
For  thee  he  gave  his  only  Son — 
O  praise  him  and  adore. 

Dark  was  that  hour  when  first  I  saw, 
My  God,  thy  violated  law, 

And  heard  its  thunders  roll — 
Alarmed,  condemned,  of  thee  afraid. 
Thy  wrath  suspended  o'er  my  head. 

Thy  vengeance  o'er  my  soul. 

In  vain,  it  seemed,  T  sought  the  path 
Whose  travellers  all  escape  thy  wrath, 

And  reach  thy  courts  above. 
In  vain,  it  seemed,  to  mourn  or  pray, 
Or  read  thy  word  from  day  to  day, 

Or  to  desire  thy  love. 

When  e'er  my  lips  did  mutter  prayer, 
My  fears  pronounced  ii  empty  air 

Which  ne'er  would  reach  thine  ear. 
I  feared  to  sleep,  to  think,  to  rest. 
Or  entertain  within  my  breast 

Aught  else  but  gloom  and  fear. 

I  asked  thy  saints  to  show  the  road 
By  which  they  found  a  pardoning  God, 

And  peace  through  him  once  slain  : 
Vainly  they  taught—  it  seemed  that  I, 
Unlike  all  other  men,  must  die 

While  seeking  God  in  vain. 


159 

But  Jesus  hears  each  sinner's  cries : 
Because  of  sin  he  touched  my  eyes, 

(My  soul,  his  praise  repeat!) 
And  showed  me  that  for  man  he  died — 
For  sinners  had  been  crucified — 

Showed  me  his  hands  and  feet. 

The  darkness  fled — by  faith  I  saw 
Jesus  fulfil  his  Father's  law, 

And  all  its  curses  meet. 
Be  thou  my  righteousness,  I  cried, 
And  be  my  hope  thy  wounded  side — 

Thy  wounded  hands  and  feet. 

Terror  no  more  besieged  my  breast, 

Nor  marred  my  peace,  nor  spoiled  my  rest- 

I  saw  the  work  complete — 
The  Son  of  God  for  me  had  died. 
For  me  was  wounded  in  his  side, 

And  in  his  hands  and  feet. 

For  me,  he  vanquished  hell  and  death — 
Be  thou  my  all,  my  health,  my  breath. 

While  this  poor  heart  shall  beat. 
Who  soothed  my  sorrows,  dried  my  tears, 
And  gave  me  sight  to  see  the  scars 

Upon  his  hands  and  feet. 


*^ 


APPENDIX 


14^ 


163 


APPENDIX. 


A. 

(1.)  I,  James  J.  Ailworth,  Dy.,  for  Thomas  R. 
Joynes,  Clerk  of  Accomack  County  Court,  in  the 
State  of  Virginia,  do  hereby  Certify,  that  the  follow- 
ing extracts  are  truly  copied  from  the  Will  of  Wil- 
liam Anderson,  recorded  in  Accomack  County  Court, 
October  10th,  1698,  viz. — "  Item,  I  will  and  bequeath 
unto  Mr.  Francis  Makemie  and  Naomie,  his  wife, 
my  eldest  daughter,  all  my  Lands  at  Matchatauck, 
being  One  Thousand  Acres,  viz:  600  by  patent  in  my 
name,  and  400  by  purchase  of  Joseph  Newton.  To 
the  said  Makemie  and  his  wife  and  the  heirs  of  their 
or  either  of  their  bodies,  lawfully  begotten,  for  ever. 
But  for  want  of  such,'who  shall  Hve  to  full  age  to  pos- 
sess and  enjoy  the  said  Land,  then  the  said  one  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  shall  revert  unto  my  three  grand- 
daughters, Elizabeth,  Naomie,  and  Comfort  Tay- 
lor, and  the  daughters  of  Elias  and  Comfort  Taylor, 
and  to  their  hereditable  heirs  for  ever.  I  also  give 
unto  said  Makemie,  all  the  money  lent  him  in  full  of 
all  or  any  accounts  that  may  be  between  us  upon 
consignments  or  any  other  ways ;  and  my  will  is, 


164 

that  he  may  have  his  Sloope  with  what  may  apper- 
tain to  her  at  my  death ;  Likewise  whatever  my 
daughter  can  claim  as  her's  In  my  house,  &c.,  without 
let  or  delay,  and  all  on  both  sides  to  be  ballanc- 
ed,  he  paying  six  pounds  starl.  to  my  sister  Ba- 
rons, and  five  ditto  to  sister  Hope,  and  five  ditto  to 
sister  Nock,  and  bestowing  in  education  to  the  vallue 
50  pounds  on  my  three  Grand  Daughters." 

"  Item.  I  give  unto  said  Francis,  and  Naomie, 
his  wife,  all  my  Plantation  at  Pocomoke,  containing 
nine  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  for  and  during  their  or 
either  of  their  Naturall  lives,  in  remainder  to  the 
child  or  heire  of  my  aforesaid  Daughter  Naomie,  if 
such  she  have,  and  its  Hereditable  issue  for  ever. 
But  for  want  of  such,  then  to  revert  and  descend  to 
my  Grand  Daughters,  by  my  daughter  Comfort  Tay- 
lor, and  to  her  heirs  for  ever.  My  meaning  is.  That 
if  my  daughter  Naomie  should  become  mother  of 
more  than  one  child,  then  the  most  worthy  of  blood 
to  have  Pocomoke,  and  the  next  to  have  Matcha- 
tauck,  but  in  case  she  die  childless,  after  her  and 
husbands  naturall  lives  on  itt,  my  other  Grand  Daugh- 
ters to  have  itt  as  co-heirs  amongst  them,  giving 
them  liberty  to  sell  each  of  their  part  of  the  Value  to 
each  other,  the  price  of  the  whole  being  Valued  by 
any  three  or  four  hones't  Neighbours,  who  may  be 
made  choice  of  for  that  purpose,  to  prevent  Either 
Inconveniences  inLiveing  so  near  each  other,or other 
diflferences  that  may  happen  by  unequalling  in  the 
Value,  but  not  any  one  to  have  any  power  or  autho- 
rity to  sell,  Give,Lease,  lett,or  by  anyways  or  means, 


165 

to  dispose  of  any  part  thereof  out  of  the  family 
that  hath  proceeded,  or  may  proceed  from  my  Loynes, 
but  to  my  said  Grand  Daughters,  and  to  their  lawful 
and  Hereditableheires  as  aforesaid  for  Ever :  Never- 
theless, it  is  my  meaning,  and  provided  said  Ma- 
kemie's  and  the  survivor  of  them,  if  my  daughter 
Naomie  have  no  issue,  shall  keep  the  Dwelling  House 
in  repaire,  and  what  other  useful  houses  worth  pre- 
serving thereon,  like  wayes  Orchards:  neither  Remove 
or  dispose  the  horse  mill,  still  and  copper,  but  them 
to  remain  and  pass  with  the  freehold  to  my  heires 
aforesaid." 

"  Item.  My  Lotts,  being  three  at  Onancock  Town, 
1  give  unto  Mr.  Francis  Makemie  and  his  heirs  and 
assigns  for  ever." 

"  I  Give  and  bequeath  to  my  Daughter  Naomie 
Makemie,  four  negro  Slaves,  viz:  Dollar,  Hannah 
the  elder,  Darkish,  young  Sarah." 

"  Item.  I  make,  constitute,  ordain,  and  appoint 
my  son  in  Law,  Mr.  Francis  Makemie,  to  be  my  joynt 
and  Several  Executors  of  this  my  last  Will  and  Testa- 
ment, desiring  them  to  be  Kind  and  assisting  to  my 
Wife." 

I  also  Certify,  that  it  appears  from  the  Records  of 
the  said  Court,  that  administration  was  granted  to 
Madm  Naomie  Makemie,  on  the  Estate  of  Eli- 
zabeth Makemie,  deed,  on  the  October  6th,  1708, 
in  these  words,  viz: — "This  day  Madm  Naomie 
Makemie  petitioned  this  court  for  Administration  on 
the  Estate  of  Elizabeth  Makemie  her  daughter,  late 


166 

deceased,  she  dying  intestate,  wliich  was  by  the 
court  granted,  she  giving  Bond  and  Security  as  the 
Law  directs,  she  presented  Capt  John  Brandhurst 
and  Hill  Drummond  for  Securyties,  who  were  by  the 
court  accepted  of,  and  ordered  that  the  Clerk  take 
bond  accordingly." 

The  name  of  Naomie  Makemie  does  not  appear 
on  the  Records  of  Acconnack  county  court,  as  I  can 
find,  since  the  xA.dministraiion  of  the  Estate  of  Eliza- 
beth Makemie  was  granted  to  her,  which  was  on 
the  6th  day  of  October,  1708. 

Test.  J.  J.  Ail  WORTH,  Dy. 

For  Tho.  R.  Joynes,  C.  A.  C. 


(2.)  The  following  are  abstracts  from  our  statutes, 
which  I  presume  you  desire  in  your  letter  to  me. 

ACT  VI. 

An  Act  for  the  suppression  of  the  Quakers,  passed 
1659-60. 

Whereas  there  is  an  vnreasonable  and  turbulent 
sort  of  people  commonly  called  Quakers,  who,  con- 
traiy  to  the  law  do  dayly  gather  together  vnto  them 
vnlaw'll  assemblies,  and  congregations  of  people, 
teaching  and  publishing  lies.  Miracles,  false  Visions, 
prophecies  and  doctrines,  which  have  influence  vpon 
the  communities  of  men,  both  ecclesiasticall  and 
civil,  endeavouring  and  attempting  thereby  to  de- 
stroy religion,  lawes,  communities,  and  all  bonds  of 


167 

civil  societie,  leaving  it  Arbitrarie  to  everie  Vaine 
and  Vitious  person,  whether  men  shall  be  safe,  lawes 
established,  offenders  punished  and  Governours  rule, 
hereby  disturbing  the  publique  peace,  and  just  inte- 
rest, to  prevent  and  restraine  which  mischiefe,  It  is 
enacted,  That  no  Master  or  Commander  of  any  Shipp 
or  other  Vessell,  do  bring  into  this  Collonie  any  per- 
son or  persons  called  Quakers,  vnder  the  penalty  of 
One  hundred  pounds  Sterling,  to  be  leaviedvpon  him 
and  his  estate  by  order  from  the  Governour  and 
council,  or  the  Commissioners  in  the  severall  counties 
where  such  shipps  shall  arrive  :  That  all  such  Qua- 
kers as  have  beene  questioned,  or  shall  hereafter  ar- 
rive, shall  be  apprehended  wheresoever  they  shall  be 
found,  and  they  be  imprisoned  without  baile  or  main- 
prize,  till  they  do  abjure  this  country,  or  putt  in  se- 
curity with  all  speed  to  depart  the  Collonie  and  not 
to  returne  again.  And  if  any  should  dare  to  pre- 
sume to  returne  hither  after  such  departure,  to  be  pro- 
ceeded against,  as  contemners  of  the  lawes,  and  ma- 
gistracy, and  punished  accordingly,  and  caused  again 
to  depart  the  country;  And  if  they  should  the  third 
time  be  so  audacious  and  impudent  as  to  returne 
hither,  to  be  proceeded  against  ^sffelons.  That  noe 
person  shall  entertain  any  of  the  Quakers  that  have 
heretofore  beene  questioned  by  the  Governour  and 
Council,  or  which  shall  hereafter  be  questioned,  nor 
permit  in  or  near  his  house,  any  Assemblies  of  Qua- 
kers in  the  like  penalty  of  one  hundred  pounds  ster- 
ling ;  That  Commissioners  and  officers  are  hereby 
required,  and   authorized,  as  they  will  answer  the 


168 

contrary  at  their  perill,  to  take  notice  of  this  Act,  to 
see  it  fully  effected,  and  executed,  and  that  no  per- 
son do  presume,  on  their  peril,  to  dispose  or  publish 
their  bookes,  pamphlets,  or  libells  bearing  the  title  of 
their  tenents  and  opinions. 

ACT  IX. 

Siaidays  not  to  he  profaned — passed  1661-2. 

That  the  Lord's  day  be  Kept  holy,  and  that  noe 
journeys  be  made  on  that  day  except  in  case  of  emer- 
gent necessity.  And  that  noe  other  thing  be  used  or 
done,  that  may  tend  to  the  prophanation  of  that  day, 
But  that  all  and  every  person  inhabiting  in  this  coun- 
try, haveing  noe  lawful  excuse  to  be  absent,  shall 
upon  every  Sunday,  and  the  fower  holy  days  here- 
after mentioned,  diligently  resort  to  their  Parish 
Church  or  Chappell,  accustomed,  then  and  there  to 
abide  orderly  and  soberly,  during  the  time  of  com- 
mon prayers,  preaching  or  other  Service  of  God, 
upon  penalty  of  being  fined  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco 
by  the  County  Court,  upon  presentment  made  by  the 
Church  Wardens,  who  are  lo  collect  the  same,  with 
the  parish  levies :  Provided  alwayes,  that  this  Act 
include  not  Quakers,  or  other  recusants,  who  out  of 
non  conformitie  to  the  Church,  totally  absent  them- 
selves, but  they  shall  be  lyable  to  such  fines,  and  pu- 
nishments, as  by  the  Statute  of  2.3d  of  Elizabeth,  are 
imposed  on  them,  being  for  every  month's  absence, 
twentypounds  Sterhng,  and  if  they  forbear  a  Twelve 
Month,  then  to  give  good  Security  for  their  good  beha- 


169 

viour,  besides  their  payment  for  their  monthly  ab- 
sences, according  to  the  tenor  of  the  said  statute  ; 
and  that  all  Quakers  for  assembling  in  unlawful  as- 
semblyes  and  conventicles,  be  fined  and  pay  each  of 
them  there  taken,  two  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco 
for  each  time  they  shall  be  for  such  unlawful  meet- 
ing taken,  or  presented  by  the  church  wardens  to 
the  county  court,  and  in  case  of  the  insolvency  of 
any  person  amonge  them,  the  more  able  then  taken 
to  pay  for  them,  one  halfe  to  the  informer  and  the 
other  halfe  to  the  publique. 

There  was  an  Act  passed  in  the  year  1663,  Impos- 
ing a  fine  of  Two  Hundred  pounds  of  Tobacco  on 
Quakers  assembling  to  the  number  of  five  for  the 
purpose  of  religious  worship,  for  the  first  offence. 
For  the  Second  offence,  forfeite  five  hundred  pounds 
of  Tobacco,  to  be  levyed  by  distresse  and  sale  of  the 
goods  of  the  party  soe  convicted,  by  warrant  from 
any  one  of  the  Justices  before  whome  th^y  shal  be 
soe  convicted,  rendering  the  overplus,  (if  any  be)  and 
for  want  of  such  distresse  or  for  want  of  ability  of 
any  person  among  them  to  pay  the  said  fine  or  fines, 
then  it  shall  be  lawfull  to  levy  and  recover  the  same 
from  the  rest  of  the  Qiiakers  or  other  seperatists,  or 
any  one  of  them  then  present,  that  are  of  greater 
ability  to  pay  the  said  fine  or  fines :  And  if  any  per- 
son after  he  or  she  in  forme  aforesaid,  hath  been 
twice  convicted  of  any  of  the  said  offences,  shall 
offend  the  third  time,  and  be  thereof  lawfully  con- 
victed, that  then  every  person  so  oflfending  and  con- 
15 


170 

vict  aforesaid,  shall  for  his  or  her  third  ofFenee,  be 
banished  this  colony  of  Virginia  to  the  places  the 
Governor  and  Council  shall  appoint.  A  fine  was  also 
imposed  upon  Masters  of  Vessells  of  Five  Thousand 
pounds  of  Tobacco,  for  bringing  Quakers  into  the 
Colony. 

A  Fine  of  five  Thousand  pounds  of  Tobacco,  was 
imposed  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  Colony  for  en- 
tertaining Quakers,  or  permitting  them  to  preach  in 
or  nearetheir  houses,  the  fine  aforesaid  to  be  imposed 
for  each  time  the  inhabitants  is  guilty  of  entertayne- 
ing  them. — Provided  alwayes,  and  be  it  further  en- 
acted that  if  any  of  the  said  persons,  Quakers,  or 
other  seperatists,  shall  after  such  conviction  as  afore- 
said, give  security  that  he,  she  or  they  shall  for  the 
time  to  come,  forbeare  to  meete  in  any  such  unlaw- 
ful assemblies  as  aforesaid,  that  then  and  from 
thenceforth,  such  person  or  persons  shal  be  dis- 
charged from  all  the  penalties  aforesaid,  any  thing  in 
this  act  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

On  the  12th  day  of  September,  1663,  John  Porter, 
a  member  of  the  house  of  Burgesses,  was  expelled, 
being  loving  to  the  Quakers,  his  opposition  to  bap- 
tism of  infants,  and  his  refus'g  to  take  the  Oaths. 
Copied  from  Statutes  at  Large. 

J.    J.    AlLWORTH. 


171 


B. 


State  of  Virginia,  Accomack  County,  sc. 

(1.)     I  do  hereby  certify,  that  the  name  of  Fran 
cis  Makemie  first  appears  on  the  records  of  said 
Court  on  the  17th  day  of  February,  1690,  in  an  Ac- 
tion brought  by  him  against  Wilham  Finney,  for  Mo- 
lasses sold  by  the  said  Makemie  to  the  said  Finney. 

It  also  appears  from  the  records  of  the  said  Court, 
that  450  Acres  of  Land  were  granted  to  the  said  Ma- 
kemie by  a  Certificate  from  the  said  Court,  on  the 
21st  day  of  February,  1692.  The  name  of  Francis 
Makemie  does  not  appear  on  the  Records  from  the 
year  1692  until  the  4th  day  of  October,  1698.  The 
following  is  a  true  copy  of  an  entry  made  on  the 
Records  of  the  said  Court  on  the  15th  day  of  Octo- 
ber, 1699,  viz  : 

*'  Whereas  Mr.  Francis  Makemie  made  applica- 
tion by  petition  to  this  Court,  that  being  ready  to 
fullfiU  what  the  Law  enjoynes  to  dissenters,  that  he 
might  be  qualified  according  to  Law,  and  prayed  that 
his  own  dwelling-house  at  Pocomoke,  also  his  own 
house  at  Onancok,  next  to  Captain  Jonathan  Lives- 
ley's,  might  be  the  places  recorded  for  Meeting,  and 
having  taken  the  oaths  enjoyned  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment instead  of  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supre- 
macy, and  subscribed  the  Test  as  likewise  that  he 


172 

did  in  compliance  with  what  the  said  Law  enjoynes^ 
produce  Certificate  from  Barbadoes  of  his  quahfica- 
tions  there,  did  declare  in  open  Court  of  the  said 
county  and  owned  the  articles  of  religion  mentioned 
in  the  statute  made  in  the  13th  year  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, except  the  34th,  35th  and  36th,  and  those 
words  for  the  20th  article,  viz: — The  Church  hath 
power  to  decide  rights  and  ceremonies  and  autho- 
rity in  controversies  of  faith,  which  the  Court  have 
ordered  to  be  registered  and  recorded,  and  that  the 
Clerk  of  the  Court  give  certificate  thereof  to  the  said 
Makemie,  according  as  the  Law  enjoynes." 

The  name  of  the  said  Francis  Makemie  appears 
very  often  on  the  records  of  the  said  Court,  from  the 
year  1699  to  the  1st  day  of  August,  1703,  which 
does  not  contain  interesting  matter  enough  to  be  re- 
cited here. 

On  the  1st  day  of  August  1703,  the  said  Francis 
Makemie  executed  a  power  of  attorney  to  his  wife, 
Naomie  Makemie,  and  John  Parker,  reciting  that  he 
w^as  about  to  depart  for  England,  and  therefore  con- 
stituted them  his  attorneys  to  do  and  transact  all 
manner  of  business  for  him. 

May  the  30th,  1704,  the  said  Francis  Makemie 
executed  a  power  of  attorney  to  his  wife,  Naomie 
Makemie,  Andrew  Hamilton,  and  James  Kemps,  re- 
citing that  he  was  about  to  depart  for  Europe. 

(2.)  The  name  of  the  said  Francis  Makemie  does 
not  appear  on  the  Records  of  the  said  Court  (except 


173 

through  his  authorized  Attorney,  Naomie  Makemie,) 
from  the  30th  day  of  May  1704  until  December  4th, 
1705,  after  which  date,  the  name  of  the  said  Fran- 
cis Makemie  appears  frequently  on  the  records  until 
his  death,  but  which  is  not  of  sufficient  interest  to  be 
recited. 

The  following  are  true  extracts  from  the  will  of 
the  said  Francis  Makemie,  which  will  was  recorded 
in  the  Clerk's  office  of  Accomack  county  court,  on 
the  16th  day  of  August,  1708, viz: 

"  I  give,  will  and  bequeath  unto  my  loving  wife, 
Naomie  Makemie,  and  my  two  daughters,  Elizabeth 
and  Anne  Makemie,  one  hundred  and  twenty  books 
to  be  chosen  by  my  Executrix  afterwards  nomenated, 
and  appointed,  out  of  the  English  Books  of  my  Li- 
brary. My  meaning  and  will  is,  that  my  wife  and 
each  of  my  daughters  enjoy  forty  english  Books,  and 
the  longest  liver  or  livers,  to  enjoy  said  Books  in  re- 
vertion,  in  case  of  the  decease  of  my  wife,  or  any  of 
my  said  daughters,  and  their  heirs  for  ever,  and  the 
rest  of  my  Library  of  Books  of  all  sorts,  I  give  and 
bequeath  unto  Mr.  Jedidah  Andrew,  minister  at  Phi- 
ladelphia, excepting  my  Law  Books,  and  after  his  de- 
cease or  removal  from  Philadelphia,  I  give  and  be* 
queath  said  Liberary  to  such  minister  or  ministers  as 
shall  succeed  him  in  that  place  and  office,  and  to 
such  only  as  shall  be  of  the  Presbyterian  or  Inde- 
pendent persuasion,  and  none  else.  My  will  is,  that 
as  soon  as  said  Books  are  remitted  to  Philadelphia, 
the  number  and  names  of  said  Liberary  may  be  put 
upon  record,  to  be  preserved  there,  as  a  constant 
15* 


174 

Liberary  for  the  use  of  foresaid  minister  or  ministers, 
successively,  for  Ever." 

"  I  give,  v^ill  and  bequeath  unto  Mr.  Andrew  Ha- 
milton and  his  heirs  for  ever,  all  my  Law  Books  to  be 
found  among  my  Liberary  of  Books,  andthoes  he  al- 
ready hath  in  possession." 

"  I  order  and  empower  my  Executrix  afterwards 
nominated  and  appointed,  to  sell,  dispose  of  and 
Alien  my  house  and  lott  at  the  new  towne  in  Prin- 
cess Anne  county,  on  the  Eastern  Branch  of  Eliza- 
beth River,  as  also  my  lott  and  house  or  frame  of 
house  in  the  new  towne  on  Wormlye's  creek,  called 
Urbana,  as  also  my  lot  Joyning  to  the  new  meeting 
House  Lott  in  Pocomoke  towne,  called  Rehoboth,  em- 
powering my  Executrix  afterwards  named,  to  make 
over  and  Alienate  that  Lott  on  which  the  meeting- 
house is  built,  in  as  ample  manner  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  as  shall  be  required  for  the  ends  and  uses 
of  a  Presbiterian  Congregation,  as  if  I  were  per- 
sonally present,  and  to  their  successors  for  ever,  and 
none  else,  but  to  such  of  the  same  perswation  in  mat- 
ters of  Religeon." 

"  I  give  and  bequeath  unto  Mr.  Jedidah  Andrew, 
minister  at  Philadelphia,  and  his  heirs  for  ever,  my 
black  camlet  Cloak,  and  my  new  cane,  bought  and 
fixed  at  Boston." 

"  I  will,  give  and  bequeath  unto  my  beloved  wife 
and  two  daughters,  Elizabeth  and  Anne  Makemie, 
the  remainder  of  my  Estate,  reall  and  personall,  not 
already  disposed  off,  either  by  the  will  of  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Anderson  or   this  will,  equally  to  be  divided 


175 

among  them,  and  the  revertion  of  all  Reall  Estate  to 
return  to  the  longest  liver  or  livers  of  them  ;  and  if 
my  daughters  aforesaid,  die  without  issue  of  their  na- 
tural Bodyes,  their  parts  of  all  Estate,  reall  and  per- 
sonal!, given  by  this  will,  I  give  and  bequeath  to  my 
youngest  sister,  Anne  Makemie,  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Ireland,  and  the  two  eldest  sons  of  my  brother  John 
and  Robert  Makemie,  both  of  the  name  of  Francis 
Makemie,  and  their  heirs  for  ever." 

*'  I  doe  constitute,  appoint,  and  ordaine,  my  deare 
and  well  beloved  wife,  Naomi  Makemie,  my  Execu- 
trix of  this  my  last  will  and  testament,  comitting  to 
her,  and  her  only,  the  guardianship  and  the  tutor- 
ship of  my  aforesaid  children,  whilst  in  minority, 
during  her  natural  life,  and  in  case  of  the  death  of 
my  deare  wife,  Naomi  Makemie,  before  this  my  will 
is  proved  and  executed,  or  the  arrival  of  my  said 
daughters,  Elizabeth  and  Anne  Makemie,  at  age,  I 
doe  constitute,  appoint  and  ordaine  the  Honorable 
Colonel  Francis  Jenkins,  of  Somerset  County,  in 
Maryland,  and  Mary  Jenkins,  his  Lady,  and  beloved 
Consort,Executorsof  this  mylast  will  and  Testament, 
and  gardians  to  my  said  children  during  their  mi- 
nority, and  till  marriage,  charging  all  persons  con- 
cerned in  the  presents  of  Almighty  and  Omnitient 
God,  to  give  and  allow  my  said  children  a  sober,  vir- 
tues, and  Religeous  Education,  either  here  or  else- 
where, as  in  Britian,  New  England,  or  Philadelphia, 
and  that  no  other  person  or  persons.  Courts  or  Judi- 
catory whatsoever,  besides  my  Executrix  or  Execu- 
tors, nominated  and  appointed,  and  whom  they  shall. 


176 

appoint  in  case  of  the  Mortallyty  of  Executors  al- 
ready appointed,  shall  have  any  power  to  Internned- 
dle  with  my  said  Estate,  reall  and  personal),  or  the 
tuetory  or  guardianship  of  my  said  Children,  with- 
out incurring  the  penalty  of  the  Statute  of  wards 
and  liveryes  and  thereby  hable  to  an  accon  of  tres- 
pass." 

"  My  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  in  case  of  my  wife 
marring,  she  have  power  and  authority,  if  she  appre- 
hend it  requesit  or  nessessary,  either  before  or  after 
marring,  to  relinquish  her  Executorship  and  comit 
the  same  with  relation  to  her  children,  their  Estate 
and  gardianship,  unto  the  trust,  care  and  manage- 
ment of  Colonel  Francis  Jenkins  and  his  Lady. 

"  In  Witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  affixed  my 
hand  and  scale  this  27th  day  of  April,  in  the  Yeare  of 
our  Sovarian,  Lady  Anne,  Queen  of  Great  Britain, 
France  and  Ireland,  Defender  of  the  faith,  Annog. 
Dom.  1708. 

"  Francis  Makemie."  (Ls.) 

"  Signed,  sealed  and  acknowledged  in  presence  of 
us  as  Witnesses,  John  Parker,  of  Mattapani;  Eliz. 
Davis,  Elizabeth  Vepre,  A.  Hamilton,  Tully  Robin- 
son, John  Lewis." 

The  within  last  will  and  Testament  of  Mr.  Francis 
Makemie,  deceased,  w^as  proved  in  open  Court  of  Ac- 
comack county,  by  the  oaths  of  Andrew  Hamil- 
ton, Tully  Robinson  and  John  Lewis,  three  of  the 
above  witnesses,  and  allowed  by  the  Cort  for  suffi* 


177 

cient  prof,  and  ordered  lo  be  recorded,  August  4th, 
1708. 

Recorded  August  16, 1708,  by 

Robert  Snead,  Clerk  of  the  county. 

The  above  extracts  I  believe  contain^  every  thing 
on  record  in  the  said  court  of  any  interest  in  regard 
to  Mr.  Francis  Makemie,  from  the  year  1690  to  the 
year  1708. 

Teste.  Js.  J.  Ailv^^orth,  Dpty. 

For  Thos.  R.  Joynes, 

Clerk  of  Accomack  Court 


178 


c. 


(1.)  The  will  of  Mrs.  Anne  Holden,  now  of  re- 
cord in  the  clerk's  office  of  Accomack  county  court, 
is  in  the  following  words,  viz. 

[Here  follows  the  will  in  form  and  at  length,  which 
proves  that  she  possessed  a  great  estate.  From  it 
we  extract  the  following,  the  only  part  deemed  in- 
teresting to  our  readers.] 

"  I  give  to  the  Rev.  Jacob  Ker,  the  sum  of  twenty 
pounds." 

"  I  give  to  the  Rev.  Samuel  McMaster,  the  sum  of 
forty-six  pounds,  a  mahogany  desk,  a  bed  and  furni- 
ture, and  a  negro  woman  called  Keziah  and  her 
children."         *         #         #        * 

"  I  give  fifty  pounds  to  the  good  poor  of  my  neigh- 
bourhood, to  be  given  and  disposed  of  at  the  discre- 
tion of  William  Selby." 

"  I  give  one  hundred  pounds  to  the  Pitts'  creek 
congregation,  to  be  disposed  of  by  the  session  for  the 
support  of  a  minister." 

"  My  last  will  and  testament  to  which  I  have  affix- 
ed my  hand  and  seal  this  15th  day  of  November,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  1787. 

"  Ann  Holden,"  (Ls.) 


179 

"Signed,  sealed  and  acknowledged  in  the  presence 
of,"  &c. 

Teste.  Littleton  Savage,  Clerk. 

A  true  copy. 

Teste.  Js.  J.  Ailworth,  Dpty. 

For  Thos.  R.  Joynes,  Clerk. 

(2.)  An  extract  from  the  last  will  and  testament 
of  the  Rev.  John  Henry. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  The  first  day  of 
October,  Anno  Domini  1715,  I,  John  Henry,  of  Po- 
comoke,  in  the  county  of  Somerset,  and  province  of 
Maryland,  being  sensible  of  my  approaching  disso- 
lution, though  now  of  tolerable  health  and  sound 
judgment,  blessed  be  God,  do  make,  constitute  and 
appoint  this  my  last  will  and  testament,  disannulHng 
and  revoking  all  others  before  made,  that  is  to  say  : — 
I  commend  my  soul  to  God,"  &c. 

True  copy.     Teste. 

James  Polk,  Reg.  Wills. 

(3.)  An  extract  from  the  last  will  and  testament 
of  John  Hampton,  deceased,  dated  October  28th, 
1719,  and  exhibited,  proved  and  recorded  in  the  of- 
fice of  the  register  of  wills,  (in  Somerset  county, 
Maryland,)  on  the  2d  day  of  February,  1721-22. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  I,  John  Hampton, 
of  Somerset  county,  and  province  of  Maryland,  mi- 
nister of  the  gospel,  being  weak  and  crazy  in  body, 
but  of  a  sound  judgment,  and  perfect  memory,  bless- 


180 

ed  be  God,  and  considering  the  shortness  and  uncer- 
tainty of  this  life,  have  made,  ordained,  constituted 
and  appointed  this  my  last  will  and  testament,  in 
manner  and  form  following,  that  is  to  say,  I  commit 
my  soul  to  God  the  giver  thereof,  and  my  body  to 
the  earth,  in  hopes  of  glorious  resurrection  through 
Jesus  Christ,  to  be  decently  interred  at  the  discretion 
of  my  executrix  hereafter  mentioned" —  &c.  &c. 


181 


D, 


EXTRACT  1. 

"At  a  court  held  by  her  Majesty's  wor'll.  Jus- 
tices of  Peace  for  Somerset  county,  at  Dividing 
Creek,  the  14th  day  of  November,  in  the  fourth  year 
of  the  Reign  of  our  Soveragn,  Lady  Anne,  by  the 
Grace  of  God,  of  England,  Scotland,  France  and 
Ireland,  Queen,  Defendr  of  the  faith,  &c.  Anno  Dom. 
1705." 

"Commissioners  present  were — Capt.  John  West, 
Maj.  John  Cornish,  Mr.  Tho.  New  bold,  Capt.  John 
Frankland,  Capt.  Chas.  Ballard,  and  Mr.  Jos.  Ve- 
nables." 

Amongst  other  proceedings  of  the  Court  were  the 
following,  viz : 

EXTRACT   2. 

"The  Rev.  Mr.  Robert  Keith  and  Mr.  Alexander 
Adams,  with  one  Mr.  George  McNish,  before  the 
wor'll  Justices  in  Court  sitting,  did  their  Petions 
exhibit  as  followeth : 

"  Somerset  County,  set 
"  To  the  wor'll  the  Commissioners  of  Somerset 
County,  the  Address  of  the  Vestry  of  the  Parish  of 
Coventry,  Humbly  showeth — That  whereas,  we  have 
16 


182 

good  ground  to  believe,  that  Mr.  Francis  Mackem- 
my  and  others  his  assistance,  are  intended  to  ad- 
dresse  your  worships  on  account  of  a  Tolleration 
granted  to  the  Dissenters,  for  Preaching  and  build- 
ing meeting  houses,  and  doing  what  else  is  incum- 
bent on  them  As  such,  and  wee  duely  considering  the 
import  of  the  matter ;  humbly  desire,  that  the  whole, 
as  to  Premises,  be  remitted  to  his  Excellency  the  Go- 
vernor of  this  Province,  and  the  honourable  Councel 
of  Stale  thereof.  By  them  to  be  considered,  ordered 
and  determined  as  they  shall  think  fitt ;  And  that  no- 
thing bedone  in  The  premises  untill  warrantand  order 
be  obtained  from  them,  as  to  the  whole  premises,  or 
any  part  thereof  And  the  same  presented  to  your 
worships  in  open  Court,  or  to  the  Vestry  of  the  said 
Parish,  and  the  remnant  Vestrys  therein  concerned. 
This,  our  humble  desire,  we  offer  whhout  any  pre- 
sumption of  disobedience  to  The  Laws,  whereof  we 
find  ourselves  not  competent  Judges.  May  it  there- 
fore please  your  worps  seriously  to  consider  the 
matter  above  represented,  and  to  grant  our  de- 
sire according  to  Justice,  and  your  Petioners  shall 
ever,  &c. 

"  Signed,  per  order, 

"  John  Heath,  Pro  Vestry." 

"  To  the  Justices  of  the  worshipfull  Court  of  the 
County  of  Somerset  now  sitting,  the  Petition  of 
George  McNish  humbly  sheweth, — That  your  peti- 
tioner craveth  that  the  usual  oaths  according  to  law 


183 

tendered  to,  And  to  be  taken  by  dissenting  Ministers, 
and  Preachers,  may  be  tendered  to  yr  Petitioner. 
And  your  Petitioner  shall  in  bounden  duty  pray,  &c. 

"  George  McNish." 

"  The  Petions  aforesaid  being  read  in  Open  Court, 
wor'll  Justices  having  heard  and  deliberately  Con- 
sidered the  Premises  on  both  sides,  it  having  re- 
ference to  his  Exncy  for  result  in  Ecclesiastic 
matters,  &c.,  he  being  here  Representative  in  Chief 
of  Church  and  State,  Allow  the  said  Vestry's  Petion 
to  have  its  final  result  and  determination  By  his 
said  Exncy  and  honble  Council  of  State  as  prayed 
for.  Notwithstanding  the  said  McNish  in  decent 
manner,  Did  require  (he  being  a  Dissenter  from  the 
Church  of  England,)  that  he  m.ight  be  dignified  as 
by  law  in  this  County  to  preach,  offering  to  take  the 
Oaths  and  subscribe  the  Declaration.  Nevertheless 
the  wor'll  Court  hath  Resolved  as  aforesaid." 

EXTRACT  3. 

"  At  a  Court  held  by  her  Mjty's  wor'll  Jus- 
tices of  Peace  for  Somerset  County,  at  Dividing 
Creek,  the  eighth  day  of  January,  in  the  fourth  year 
of  the  Reigne  of  our  Sovereign  Lady  Anne,  by  the 
Grace  of  God,  of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and 
Ireland,  Queen,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  &c..  Anno  Do- 
mini 1705-6,— 

"  Commissioners  present  were — Capt.  John  West, 
Major  John  Cornish,  Mr.  Thos.  Newbald,  Captain 


184 

John  Franklyne,  Capt.  Charles  Ballard,  Mr.  Joseph 
Venables." 

Amongst  other  proceedings  of  the  court  were  the 
following,  viz. 

EXTRACT  4. 

"  Then  did  Mr.  George  McNish  and  Mr.  John 
Hampton  their  Petition  exhibit  before  the  worship- 
full  justices  in  court  as  foUoweth  : 

"  To  the  worshipful!  court  of  Somerset  county,  in 
the  Province  of  Maryland,  the  petition  of  George 
McNish  and  John  Hampton,  most  humbly  sheweth, 

"  That  whereas  there  is  an  Act  of  Parliament 
made  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  King  William 
and  Queen  Mary,  Instituted  an  Act  for  Exempting 
their  Majesties  Protestant  subjects  dissenting  from 
the  Church  of  England,  from  the  penalties  of  sundry 
Laws.  And  w^hereas  by  the  Express  words  of  the 
said  Law,  we  are  required  to  tender  to  the  Justices  of 
the  Peace  at  the  General  or  Quarter  Sessions  of  the 
County  Town,  parts  or  division  where  we  live,  to 
Take  the  Oath  of  Allegiance,  take  or  subscribe  the  De- 
clarations, and  Declare  our  Approbation  of,  and  sub- 
scribe the  Articles  of  Religion  made  the  thirtieth  year 
of  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Excepting  such  as 
are  Excepted  in  said  Act ;  and  whereas  we  In  a  ready 
Complyance  with  said  Law  have  already  attended  and 
tendered  ourselves  to  take  the  said  Oath  and  perform 
every  thing  required  in  said  Law  ^  we  do  humbly 
tender  ourselves  again  to  your  worships,  as  the  pro- 
per Court  held  by  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  this- 


185 

County  Empowered  and  required  to  administer  such 
Oaths,  and  for  receiving  such  subscriptions,  as  are 
Enjoyned  in  said  Act  of  Parliament. 

"  We,  therefore,  your  Humble  Petitioners  pray, 
that  by  a  further  Consideration  of  sd  Law,  we  may 
be  admitted  to  do  our  duty  in  complying  with  said 
Law,  which  we  are  ready  to  doe,  seeing  all  Dissen- 
ters in  all  her  majesties  Dominions  have  in  this  man- 
ner Qualified  themselves  ;  and  your  Petitioners  as  in 
duty  bound,  shall  allways  pray." 

"  The  aforesaid  petition  being  read,  and  by  the 
wor'll  Court  Considered:  That  whereas  a  petition 
from  Coventry  Parish,  and  another  from  said 
Macnish,  was  in  No'ber  Court  last  to  this  court 
preferred,  and  the  same  referred  to  his  Exncy 
and  honble  councel  for  result,  it  is  this  day  like- 
wise by  the  wor'll  Justices  again  ordered,  that  said 
Hampton  and  Macnish  petion  be  continued  till  the 
aforsd  result  be  returned." 

EXTRACT  5. 

**Att  a  Court  held  By  her  Majty's  wor'll  Jus- 
tices of  the  Peace  for  Somerset  County,  att  Divid- 
ing Creek,  the  i2th  day  of  June,  Anno  Dom.  1706, 

"Commissioners  present  were — Capt.  John  West, 
Major  John  Cornish,  Mr.  Thos.  New^bold,  Captain 
John  Franklyne,  Captain  Charles  Ballard,  Mr.  Jo- 
seph Yenables." 

Amongst  other  proceedings  were  the  following, 
viz : — 

16* 


186 

"  This  day  appeared  Mr.  John  Hampton  and  Mr. 
George  Macnish,  Exhibited  an  order  from  his  Excel- 
lency the  Governor  and  honourable  councill  for  their 
Qualification  to  preach  in  this  county,  in  obedience 
thereunto  this  Court  did  administer  the  Oaths  ap- 
pointed per  Act  of  Parliament,  to  the  said  Hampton 
and  McNish,  who  did  comply  therewith,  and  did 
likewise  Subscribe  the  Declaration,  whereupon  this 
Court  did  allow  that  the  aforesaid  Hampton  and 
Macnish  siiould  preach  att  the  meeting-house  near 
Mr.  Edgar's,  the  meeting-house  att  the  head  of  Mo- 
nocan,  the  meeting-house  att  Snowhill,  and  the  meet- 
ing-house on  Mr.  Joseph  Venables's  Land,  as  per  the 
Desenting  preachers  required." 

"  By  his  Exncy  the  Governor,  March  the  13th, 
1705 — Ordered  then  that  the  worpfull  Justices  of 
Somerset  County,  take  the  Oaths  of  the  Desenting 
ministers  according  to  the  Act  of  Parliament  of  the 
first  of  King  Wm  and  Queen  Mary,  Exempting 
her  Majty's  Protestant  subjects  from  Certain  pe- 
naltys,  &c. 

Signed  per  order, 

W.  Bladen,  CI.  CouncelL 
Indorst  to  Somerset  Court." 

The  foregoing  extracts,  taken  from  Liber  A-  B. 
No.  1, — one  of  the  Record  books  in  the  office  of  the 
clerk  of  Somerset  county  court,  were  intended,  and 
are  believed,  to  be  exact  to  a  word  and  letter,  except 
that  in  several  instances,  where  ancient  abbreviations 


187 

occur  in  the  record,  I  have  written  the  words  at 
large.  The  extracts  are  intended  to  be  exact  in 
other  particulars — for  example — in  punctuation  and 
the  use  of  capital  letters.  Some  of  the  inaccuracies 
in  spelling,  improprieties  of  punctuation,  and  other 
imperfections,  were  most  probably  errors  of  the 
clerk.  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better,  scrupu- 
lously to  have  observed  the  abbreviations  throughout 
this  copy ;  or  still  better  to  have  disregarded  them 
altogether. 

In  the  record,  and  of  course  in  the  extracts  which 
I  have  made  from  it,  the  order  of  the  governor  that 
the  justices  of  Somerset  county  should  take  the  oaths 
of  the  dissenting  ministers,  is  dated  not  only  before 
the  joint  petition  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Hampton  and 
McNish,  but  also  before  the  previous  sole  petition  of 
Mr.  McNish.  The  sittings  of  the  court  are  chroni- 
cled in  the  book  in  regular  consecutive  order,  so  that 
there  is  no  mistake,  I  think,  as  to  the  dates,  at  which 
the  petitions  were  preferred.  The  inconsistency  in 
dates,  I  therefore  believe  to  be  owing  to  an  error  of 
either  the  clerk  of  the  council  of  state,  or  the  clerk 
of  the  county,  in  affixing  the  date  to  the  order.  In- 
stead of  having  been  dated  in  1705,  it  ought,  I  doubt 
not,  to  have  been  dated  in  1706,  or  1705-6.  If  so 
dated,  time  and  sense  perfectly  agree. 

The  joint  petition  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Hampton 
and  McNish,  represents  that  they  had  already  ten- 
dered themselves  to  take  the  oath ;  and  that  they 
lender  themselves  agam  for  that  purpose.  I  do  not 
perceive  that  there  is  any  minute  in  Liber  A.  B.  No. 


188 

21,  of  Mr.  Hampton's  having  previously  attended 
and  tendered  himself  to  take  the  oath  ;  and  as  the 
order  of  the  court  on  the  joint  petition  refers  to 
antecedent  petitions  of  only  the  vestry  of  Coventry 
parish  and  of  Mr.  McNish,  and  not  to  any  of  Mr. 
Hampton,  and  those  petitions  are  on  the  second  page, 
it  is  unlikely,  I  think,  that  there  is  such  a  minute  in 
the  book.  It  may  be  then  either  that  the  expressions 
in  the  joint  petition,  that  have  been  alluded  to,  are 
somev^^hat  loose :  or  that  Mr.  Hampton  attended  on 
the  first  occasion  with  Mr.  McNish,  and  tendered 
himself  orally  only,  and  so  informally,  that  it  v^^as 
not  thought  proper  to  make  any  minute  of  it;  and 
that  their  cases  being  precisely  the  same  in  prin- 
ciple and  circumstantially  too,  it  was  understood  that 
one  petition  should  try  the  matter.  The  latter  sur- 
mise receives  a  colour  of  probability  from  the  state- 
ment in  the  petition  of  the  vestry  of  Coventry  pa- 
rish, that  they  had  good  ground  to  believe  that  Mr. 
Francis  Makemie  and  others  intended  to  address  the 
court  in  relation  to  the  act  in  favour  of  the  dissen- 
ters. This  probability  is  strengthened  by  the  con- 
sideration that  the  petitioners  would  hardly  allege  to 
the  court  that  there  had  been  transactions  of  busi- 
ness before  it,  which  nevertheless  had  never  occur- 
red. Perhaps  this  consideration  strengthens  proba- 
bility into  certainty  that  either  on  the  occasion  that 
has  been  adverted  to,  or  on  some  other  occasion 
subsequent  to  that  and  previous  to  the  joint  petition,, 
the  Rev.  John  Hampton  tendered  himself  to  the  court 


189 

to  take  the  prescribed  oath,  and  make  and  subscribe 
the  required  declarations. 

Or  it  may  be  after  all,  that  there  is  a  minute  in 
some  preceding  book  of  Mr.  Hampton's  having  ten- 
dered himself  to  take  the  oath,  and  that  his  petition 
was  continued  on  other  grounds  than  that  assigned 
for  continuing  the  petition  of  Mr.  McNish,  and  the 
joint  petition  of  Messrs.  Hampton  and  McNish.  I 
have  not  been  able,  however,  as  yet  to  find  such  a 
minute.  The  joint  petition  was  preferred,  no  doubt, 
on  account  of  delay  in  hearing  from  the  governor 
and  council,  and  for  the  purpose  of  urging  the  mat- 
ter on. 

Rider  Henry  Winder. 

July  22,  1835. 

N.  B.  It  might  be  better,  if  the  foregoing  remarks 
were  revised  and  written  over;  but  at  present  time 
for  the  business  cannot  well  be  spared.  The  com- 
ments on  some  expressions  in  the  joint  petition  hav- 
ing occurred  to  me,  I  have  put  them  down.  Per- 
haps, however,  it  may  be  thought  that  they  are 
unnecessary  and  superfluous.  R.  H.  W. 

Mr.  Winder,  who  is  also  assisting  me  in  making  an 
alphabet  to  the  records  belonging  to  the  clerk's  of- 
fice, has  made  a  full  copy  of  the  proceedings  in  rela- 
tion to  the  license  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  McNish  and 
Hampton.  I  have  thought  proper  to  enclose  them 
to  you,  although  they  were  intended  for  myself. 

G.  Hand.^ 
Mr.  Speiyce. 


190 


E. 

Princess  Anne,  Somerset  County ,  1835» 

My  Dear  Sir,— 

(1)  In  my  researches,  I  find  among  the  records  of 
this  county,  a  deed  dated  in  1723-,  to  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Stewart,  the  pastor,  and  others,  the  elders,  "and 
their  successors  for  ever,  for  the  use,  support,  main- 
tenance, and  continuance  of  a  meeting-house  for  the 
worship  and  service  of  Almighty  God,  according  to 
the  Presbyterian  persuasion,  and  for  no  other  use 
whatsoever,"  for  "  a  part  of  a  tract  of  land  called 
in  the  original  patent,  '  Nutter's  Purchase,'  lying  on 
the  north  side  of  the  head  of  Menokin  river,  con- 
taining one  quarter  of  an  acre."  This  is  the  identi- 
cal spot  whereupon  the  Presbyterian  church  now 
stands  at  Princess  Anne— and  the  remains  of  the 
said  Rev.  William  Stewart  now  lie  mouldering  in 
the  dust,  in  the  spot  of  ground  mentioned  in  said 
deed,  and  upon  which  our  church  now  stands.  This 
fact  has  been  handed  to  the  present  generation  by  a 
lady  named  Hitch,  a  descendant  and  grand-daughter 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stewart,  who  died  a  few  years  ago, 
at  an  advanced  age.  Mr.  Stewart  departed  this  life 
about  the  year  1742,  and  a  short  time  previously  to 


191 

his  death,  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  house  and 
other  property  by  fire,  among  which  was  the  session 
book  of  our  church ;  for  which  reason  I  am  unable 
to  give  you  any  information  in  regard  to  the  minis- 
ters of  our  church,  from  our  present  session  book, 
anterior  to  the  year  1747.  It  appears  from  the  Mo- 
nokin  session  book,  that  in  the  year  1747,  the  Rev. 
John  Hambleton  was  the  pastor  of  the  Monokin  and 
Rehoboth  congregations,  and  that  he  had  preached 
to  the  congregation  at  Snowhill.  This  session  book 
imparts  very  little  more  information  about  Mr.  Ham- 
bleton further  than  that  he  went  to  Philadelphia  to 
meet  Synod  in  1750.  The  next  pastor  mentioned  in 
our  session  book,  is  the  Rev.  Hugh  Henry,  who  it 
appears  assisted  in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's 
supper  at  Monokin  in  1752,  and  in  1758  entered  on 
the  pastoral  charge  at  Monokin  and  Rehoboth.  The 
call  was  made  in  1758,  and  Mr.  Nehemiah  King  and 
Col.  Robert  Henry  were  appointed  to  present  it  to 
the  Lewistown  Presbytery  to  sit  at  Cold  Spring,  in 
Delaware.  This  gentleman  was  not  of  the  family 
which  then  resided  in  Somerset.  The  name  of  the 
clergyman  who  had  previously  resided  in  this  coun- 
ty, w"as  John  Henry,  as  I  have  heretofore  informed 
you.  In  1759,  the  Rev.  John  Harris  assisted  in  the 
administration  of  the  sacrament,  and  the  Rev.  Hugh 
Henry  sat  in  session  in  1762.  No  further  notice  is 
taken  of  the  Rev.  Hugh  Henry  by  our  session  book, 
until  1763,  when  a  receipt  by  his  administratrix  is 
mentioned.  In  1764,  the  Monokin  congregation 
agreed  to  call  the  Rev.  Jacob  Ker  of  the  New  Bruns- 


192 

wick  Presbytery,  who  had  previously  settled  in  this 
congregation,  and  in  November  of  that  year,  was 
regularly  installed.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Miller  preached 
the  sermon  from  Heb.  xiii.  17,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Harris  gave  the  charge.  It  likewise  appears  from 
our  session  book,  that  the  Rev.  Jacob  Ker  departed 
this  life  on  the  29th  July,  1795. 

In  the  year  1764,  our  session  finding  that  the  meet- 
ing-house was  much  decayed,  and  too  small  to  hold 
the  people  who  then  attended,  determined  to  build  a 
new  one  of  brick,  which  determination  the  session 
carried  into  effect,  and  accordingly  erected  the 
church  which  now  stands  at  the  head  of  Monokin, 
at  Princess  Anne,  covering  therewith  the  spot  of 
ground  where  the  old  church  stood.  Many  years 
however  previously  to  the  construction  of  the  pre- 
sent church,  the  congregation  had  purchased  about 
one  acre  more  of  land,  which  now  belongs  to  it.  In 
the  year  1796,  the  Rev.  John  Collins  was  directed 
to  supply  every  third  Sabbath  at  Rocowalkin,  Mono- 
kin  and  Rehoboth. 

In  June,  in  the  year  1799,  the  Rev.  John  Brown 
Slemons  was  installed  pastor  of  the  congregations  of 
Wicomico,  and  Monokin,  and  officiated  as  such  until 
the  year  1821.  In  the  year  1824,  the  Rev.  Robert 
McMordie  Laird  became  the  stated  supply  for  these 
congregations  until  the  year  1825.  In  1826,  the 
Rev.  Joshua  Moore  became  the  pastor  of  the  con- 
gregations of  Wicomico  and  Monokin,  and  officiated 
for  about  two  years,  when  he  resigned  the  charge, 
and  in  the  year  1829,  the  Rev.  Robert  McMordie 


193 

Laird  again  became  our  stated  supply,  in  which  ca- 
pacity he  continued  to  act  until  July,  1835. 

From  the  above,  it  will  appear  that  the  Rehobeth 
and  Monokin  congregations  were  at  one  period  of 
time  united,  and  at  another  the  Wicomico  and  Mo- 
nokin congregations — but  the  session  book  above 
referred  to,  does  not  explain  these  unions  and  dis- 
unions. 

It  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  from  the  grant 
of  the  piece  of  land  to  the  Rev.  William  Stewart, 
and  the  elders  therein  mentioned,  making  in  all  nine 
persons,  that  the  church  must  have  been  erected  long 
before  the  date  of  the  deed,  else  there  would  not 
have  been  a  pastor  with  such  a  full  eldership.  We 
cannot  at  this  period  of  lime,  account  for  the  erec- 
tion of  the  meeting-house  upon  the  ground  before  it 
was  purchased  and  conveyed.  The  language  used 
in  the  deed  conveys  the  idea  that  it  had  been  built 
before  the  date  of  the  grant.  Among  other  terms  in 
the  deed,  the  word  "  continuance"  is  used,  evidently 
implying  that  it  had  been  used  as  a  church.  Again 
the  word  "  continuance"  is  unusual  in  conveyances 
of  land,  but  is  used  in  this  deed.  And  again  in 
1764,  it  is  expressly  stated  in  the  session  book,  amono- 
other  reasons  for  building  a  new  church,  that  the 
meeting-house  was  much  decayed;  which  would  not 
have  been  the  case  had  the  meeting-house  been  built 
in  1723,  the  year  the  deed  bears  date,  for  in  that 
case,  the  house  would  have  been  only  about  41  years 
old — and  it  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  if  it  was 
built  in  1723,  it  would  have  been  much  decayed  in 
17 


194 

1764.  But  in  fact  this  is  the  same  church  that  was 
spoken  of  in  the  order  of  council  of  1705,  at  the 
head  of  Monokin,  a  copy  of  which  order  you  have 
in  your  possession. 

With  much  regard,  I  remain 

Yours,  &c. 

Geo.  Handy. 
Mr.  Irving  Spence,  Snowhill. 

(2.) 
Lewes ^  Del,  February  17 th,  1837. 
Dear  Brother, — 

The  following  is  all  that  I  can  collect  from  the  re- 
cords of  the  United  congregations  of  Lewes,  Cool 
Spring  and  Indian  River,  worthy  of  an  insertion  in 
the  work  of  Irving  Spence,  Esq. 

The  early  records  of  the  congregations  of  Lewes 
and  Cool  Spring,  and  probably  also  of  Indian  River, 
are  lost.  The  book  now  in  existence  which  contains 
the  records  of  these  churches,  was  bought  May  8th, 
1758.  They  commence  w'.th  the  call  and  installa- 
tion of  the  Rev.  Matthev/  Wilson.  The  latter  event 
took  place  May  5lh,  1756. 

The  following  historical  sketch  is  found  in  the  ses- 
sion book  in  the  hand  writing  of  the  Rev.  Francis 
Hindman.  I  shall  copy  it  verbatim,  and  leave  you 
to  select,  alter,  &c. 

The  first  Presbyterian  clergyman  who  made  any 


195 

considerable  residence  in  the  county  of  Sussex,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  information  now  to  be  had,  was 
a  certain  Mr.  Black.  It  is  certain  he  was  in  Lewes- 
town  in  the  year  1708. 

The  next  was  Mr.  Thomson.*  The  present  Pres- 
byterian church  at  Lewestown  was  built  for  him, 
[i.  e.  the  old  brick  church  in  which  Mr.  Hindman 
preached.  A.  D.  W.]  because  on  the  eastern  end  of 
the  house,  before  it  was  overlaid,  were  to  be  seen 
these  letters,  J.  T.,  and  these  figures,  1728,  which  is 
as  much  as  to  say  :  this  house  was  built  for  the  Rev. 
John  Thomson  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1728.  There 
was  a  small  wooden  house  at  Lewestown  before  the 
present  building,  but  whether  it  was  built  for  Mr. 
Black  or  for  Mr.  Thomson,  is  uncertain. 

The  Rev.  Josiahf  Martin,  from  Ireland,  was  the 
next.  Under  his  ministry  the  congregation  of  Cool 
Spring  was  formed :  and  Lewestown  and  Cool 
Spring  in  union,  were  his  pastoral  charge  until  the 
day  of  his  death.  But  although  Mr.  Martin  was  the 
founder  of  the  church  at  Cool  Spring,  and  was  their 
pastor  in  union  with  the  Presbyterian  church  at 
Lewestown  for  many  years,  yet  the  times  when  his 
ministry  commenced,  and  when  it  ended  with  his 
death,  are  uncertain.     This  is  certain,  however,  that 


*  By  an  extract  taken  from  the  session  book  of  Rehobfth, 
Somerset  county,  Md.,  by  the  Rev.  Jos.  Copse,  it  appears  that 
the  Rev.  John  Thomson  was  ordained  at  Lewestown,  1717. 

A.  De  Witt. 

f  James,  as  I  am  assured  by  one  of  the  heirs,  J.  Burton,  Octo- 
ber, 1803. 


196 

they  were  between  the  years  1728  and  1756,  and 
that  his  remains  are  interred  before  the  pulpit  in  the 
[old]  Presbyterian  church  in  Levvestown. 

The  Rev.  Hector  AlHson  was  the  next.  But  how 
long  he  was  their  pastor  is  uncertain ;  'tis  certain, 
however,  that  he  had  left  them  before  the  year  1756. 

The  Rev.  Matthew  Wilson  was  the  next.  He  had 
been  licensed  in  April,  1754,  by  the  Presbytery  of 
Newcastle,  and  ordained  sine  titulo  by  the  same 
presbytery  in  1755,  and  by  order  of  the  same  pres- 
bytery, he  was  installed  at  Lewestown  by  the  Rev. 
Alexander  McDowell,  in  less  than  a  month  after  said 
congregations  had  called  him  to  be  their  pastor. 
The  call  was  April  13th,  the  ordination  May  5th, 
1756. 

The  distance  of  the  churches  of  Lewestown  and 
Cool  Spring  is  about  seven  miles;  the  one  standing 
in  the  town,  or  rather  village,  whose  name  it  bears  ; 
the  other  at  the  aforesaid  distance,  in  a  south-west- 
ern direction.  It  appears  that  disputes  ran  high  then 
in  Sussex,  as  well  as  in  other  places,  between  the 
new  and  the  o/(i  sides ;  and  that  Mr.  Wilson's  set- 
tlement at  Lewestown  and  Cool  Spring,  although 
agreeable  to  the  latter,  was  opposed  by  ihe  former. 

There  is  another  Presbyterian  church  at  about 
the  distance  of  tiiirteen  miles  from  Lewestown,  in  a 
southern  direction.  This  appears  to  have  been  for- 
merly known  by  the  name  of  Frame's;  but  is  now 
most  commonly  named  from  Indian  River,  at  the 
head  of  which  it  stands.  The  congregation  of  In- 
dian River  appears  to  have  been  chiefly  formed  un- 


197 

der  the  ministry  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Harris,  but  about 
a  year  after  the  union  of  the  synods,  namely,  in 
1759,  Mr.  Harris  obtained  a  regular  dismission  in  the 
Presbytery  of  Lewestown,  from  his  pastoral  charge 
of  the  congregation  of  Indian  River :  hoping,  no 
doubt,  that  it  would  some  time  unite  with  the  congre- 
gations of  Lewestown  and  Cool  Spring.  It  would 
seem  that  the  chief  part  of  the  congregations  of 
Lewestown  and  Cool  Spring,  were  of  the  old  side, 
and  those  of  Indian  River  chiefly  of  the  new  side.  It 
is  certain  that  many  attempts  were  made  to  unite  the 
congregation  of  Indian  River  with  the  other  two, 
under  the  pastoral  care  of  Mr.  Wilson  ;  but  that  they 
all  proved  abortive.  However,  in  the  year  1767, 
they  were  so  far  reconciled  to  one  another,  that  the 
congregation  of  Indian  River  supplicated  the  pres- 
bytery for  a  third  part  of  Mr.  Wilson's  labours  as  a 
stated  supply,  which  was  granted.  But  notwithstand- 
ing those  congregations  were  thus  separate  in  their 
spiritual  concerns,  yet  in  the  time  of  Dr.  Wilson's 
ministry,  they  became  united  in  their  temporalities. 
The  legislature  of  the  State  of  Delaware  in  the  year 
1787,  made  a  law  to  enable  all  the  religious  societies 
in  the  State,  consisting  of  fifteen  families  and  up- 
wards, to  become  incorporate  by  observing  the  re- 
gulations therein  prescribed.  These  congregations 
availed  themselves  of  this  law  in  the  year  1788,  and 
so  they  were  all  three  incorporated  into  one  by  the 
name  of  "  The  United  Presbyterian  Congregations 
of  Lewes,  Cool  Spring  and  Indian  River" — that  is 
to  say,  their  temporal  concerns  were  united ;  and 


198 

indeed  these  seem  to  be  all  belonging  to  the  churchr 
with  which  human  laws  have  a  right  to  interfere. 

Dr.  Wilson  died  March  31st,  1790,  and  his  re- 
mains are  interred  in  the  Presbyterian  burying- 
ground  in  Lewestown. 

The  Rev.  Francis  Hindman  received  a  call  from 
"  the  incorporated  and  fully  united  congregations  of 
Lewestown,  Cool  Spring  and  Indian  River,"  and  was 
ordained  and  installed  at  Cool  Spring,  October  27th, 
1791. 

It  is  stated  by  Mr.  Hindman,  that  the  above  sketch 
of  church  history  was  approved  by  the  Presbytery 
of  Lewestown,  at  Broad-creek,  April  2 1st,  1795,  and 
yet  below  is  the  following  record  : — "  I,  the  subscri- 
ber, being  the  only  surviving  minister  present  at  the 
time  when  this  sketch  of  church  history  was  said  to 
be  read  and  approved,  do  declare  and  assert  that 
there  was  no  such  paper  read  in  presbytery. 

"  Saml.  McMaster." 

Query. — May  it  not  have  been  read  during  some 
short  absence  of  Mr.  McMaster?  Or  by  a  commit- 
tee on  the  session  book,  as  is  usual  ?  Mr.  Hindman 
says  afproved,  not  read. 

The  follovv'ing  are  the  pastors  who  succeeded  Mr. 
Hindman: 

Rev.  John  Burton,  A.  M.,  began  to  labour  as  stated 
supply,  December  10th,  1795,  received  a  call  April 
11th,  1797. 

Rev.  James  P.  Wilson,  D.  D. 


199 

Rev.  Jos.  Copse,  V.  D.  M. 

Rev.  Benjamin  Ogden,  M.  A. 

Rev.  John  Mitchelmore,  V.  D.  M. 

Rev.  Abraham  De  Witt,  call  dated  June  13th, 
1834.  Labours  commenced  May  25th,  1834.  In- 
stalled November  14th,  1834, 


THE  END. 


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